Cav Goes To Beast Mode

Win No.3 in this year’s race for Mark but today he faces TWO ascents of savage Mont Ventoux

- Mike Walters

Mark Cavendish will have to tame the Beast of Provence today – twice – to stay on course for rewriting Tour de France history.

The Manx Missile made his 33rd career stage win on Le Tour, one short of Yellow Jersey legend Eddy Merckx’s all-time record, look like shelling peas.

And as Cavendish, 36, rode into Valence in triumph, he admitted he did not even need to hit the gas until the last 150 metres because his Deceuninck-QuickStep team unfurled an “old- school” lead-out.

The catering staff could not have arranged last night’s dinner on his plate in a more orderly fashion. But now comes the hard part. Stage 11 features two ascents of Mount Ventoux, the unforgiving lunar landscape where tragic British rider Tommy Simpson died 54 years ago.