Greig Leach

Sticking with some earlier theatre references, Mark Cavendish (Deceuninck-Quick Step) has become the center of quite alot of the conversations of this year's Tour. Add to the fact that today's stage win means he is just one win away from tieing the all time stage win record of Eddy Merckx. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I will add the cavaet that sprinter like Cav win many more stages than those vying for the overall win. And this is just Merckx's Tour wins, not his career wins. According to his Wikipedia page, Merckx has 445 wins in just 1,545 races. Best I can tell, Cav has 50 wins as of this one.

Both Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) and Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Fenix) were within a half bike lenght of besting the Manx Missle, perhaps even closing faster than the Maillot Vert. However, in sprinting it isn't just being fast, it is being in the right place, and getting the timing perfect. That is something that Cav excels at. Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) came in just behind Cav's leadout man, Michael Morkov. Not what I expect to see from the three time world champion.