10 years ago today: Cavendish & Renshaw with double victory in Paris

Tour de France history: Even in the cycling scene, flat stages are often considered boring. But most fans like to watch the final stage on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées again and again. Perhaps the most impressive victory out of a mass sprint was achieved there by Mark Cavendish in 2009 – ahead of his starter Mark Renshaw.

Cavendish had the best sprint move

We write that July 26, 2009. The Tour de France is decided. Alberto Contador wins the Tour of France for the second and last time. On the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, it's all about the stage win and the green jersey. Mark Cavendish has never won the jersey of the sprinters, but he secured it at the Tour de France 2009 but already five stage wins. With his team's sprint train Columbia-HTC he hardly gave the competition a chance. On the last kilometer, the Garmin – Slipstream team tried to disrupt the sprint preparations of the Cavendish train. But it didn't work on the last stage either. The men from Columbia - HTC just shot past the competition. Just before the last bend came Mark Renshaw to the top and pulled on the sprint as the world's best starter for the world's best sprinter.

In total, Cavendish wins 30 Tour stages

The camera angle shows it clearly: there is no one to be seen far and wide. Mark Renshaw and Mark Cavendish have left a gap. Even before Cavendish ignites the turbo, the double victory is actually already certain. The Brit from the Isle of Man celebrated his tenth stage win in two years, his sixth alone in the 2009 Tour de France. Many more victories followed in the years that followed. All in all, Mark Cavendish is partying until 2016 30 stage wins in the Tour de France. This puts him in second place behind Eddy Merckx (34 wins) on the all-time list of the best. He dominated the bunch sprints for many years. Only since 2017 does Mark Cavendish not find his way back to his old form. He celebrated his last success in a race at the Dubai Tour on February 8, 2018. He was not nominated for the Tour de France 2019.