WON FOR THE ROAD

Sir Mark is ready for his final Tour and out to create history

- MIKE WALTERS

SIR MARK CAVENDISH will take aim at immortality on his Tour de France encore in Florence today - on a mission to prove you're never too old for fairy tales.

At 39, the Manx missile reboots his pursuit of a record 35th stage win, which would take him clear of Belgian legend Eddy Merckx for the most successes in Le Tour's 121-year history.

And if the first-ever knight of the peloton turns the 111th edition of the world's greatest bike race into a tale of Florence and the machine aboard his Wilier Filante set of wheels, Cavendish will be untouchable as Britain's greatest cyclist since Penny Farthing.

He was inches away from invincible prominence in Le Tour's record books last year until he was caught on the line in Bordeaux, cursing a cruel gear malfunction and slipping chain, by a rampaging Jasper Philipsen.