Mark Cavendish ready to take aim at history on final Tour de France farewell

Not for the first time, Sir Mark Cavendish is ready for his final Tour de France and a last shot at another piece of history.

Twelve months ago, the Manxman had recently announced his impending retirement and went into what he thought was his final Tour seeking a stage win which would be the 35th of his career, giving him the record outright after matching Eddy Merckx on 34 in 2021.

He would come within just a few metres of that victory on stage seven into Bordeaux, hampered by a skipping chain, but a day later Cavendish left the race in an ambulance after breaking his collarbone in a crash.

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It was not the way for one of cycling’s all-time greats to end his long association with the race that has defined so much of his career. Whether or not he would manage to win a stage, last year’s Tour was supposed to be a lap of honour – a farewell to his favourite race.

Ultimately, it was little surprise that Cavendish was subsequently persuaded by his family and his Astana-Qazaqstan team to ride on for one more year.

So here we go again. Cavendish, newly knighted in the King’s Birthday Honours, will be back on the start line.

Astana have gone all-in on Project Cavendish this time.

Last year, there were question marks over his lead-out train in a team with little sprint pedigree, so over the winter they brought in Michael Morkov and Davide Ballerini – two of the riders that helped him to win four stages of the 2021 Tour.

Preparations have been far from perfect. Cavendish, now 39, got off to a strong start to his season with an early win in Colombia, but things quickly went wrong after that.

He was forced to quit the sprinter’s paradise that is the UAE Tour in February as illness