Yahoo News Mark Cavendish backs himself to break Tour de France record in 2018
Mark Cavendish’s Tour de France lasted just four days and ended with a hole in his shoulder but the Briton is confident of returning to break Eddy Merckx’s record for stage wins in the race.
Cavendish has 30 Tour stage victories to Merckx’s 34 but the 32‑year-old believes he remains the quickest man in the peloton.
“When I come back, I’m still likely to be the fastest sprinter out there,” said the Team Dimension Data rider. “Eddy’s record is definitely a target for me. It was a goal that I thought was never achievable so I never targeted it.
“I never really thought about it but suddenly I find myself on 30 wins, it’s now in my sights. It’s something I want to go for.”
Cavendish has endured a tough year. He contracted glandular fever but recovered in time for the Tour. He had warned he did not expect to be vying for stage wins but surprised himself to be in contention for victory on stage four only to be pushed into the barriers by Peter Sagan and suffer a broken shoulder.
“As strange as it sounds, I actually take positives that I was good enough from six weeks of training to be in a position to win a stage of the Tour de France,” he said.
The injury has put paid to Cavendish’s hopes of World Championship glory in September but said it would not end his season entirely.
Even in Cavendish’s absence, it was another good Tour for Britain with Chris Froome winning it for the fourth time, Team Sky taking the team honours and Simon Yates the best-placed young rider.
And Cavendish believes the Froome hegemony shows no signs of diminishing.“I think Froomey’s the definite favourite for a fifth Tour win,” he said.
Froome will next month bid to become only the third rider to win the Tour and the Vuelta a Espana in the same season. Of his chances, Cavendish said: “I couldn’t tell you how he is physically but, on his current form, you’d say it should be doable.”
