The first week of the 2016 Tour de France will go down as one to remember for Bathurst’s Mark Renshaw as he and his Dimension Data team shone in the world’s toughest cycling race.
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Cavendish is now five shy of Eddy Merckx’s record.
Cavendish, who leads the points competition for the green jersey, was nonetheless grateful to his teammates for all their work in helping him win the stage.
It was a day for the sprinters on a mostly flat 190.5km stage from Arpajon-sur-Cere and the Manxman did not disappoint, perfectly timing his surge to pip Kittel.
Cavendish, who won his first Tour stage in 2008, could add to his total in Montpellier, Villars les Dombes, Bern and the run-in to the last day in Paris.
“We were a little too far back, (teammate Bernhard Eisel) Bernie and I, going into that”, Cavendish said, revealing the details of his sprint masterclass.
Cavendish was able to out-foxed Marcel Kittel (Etixx-QuickStep) and Tour-rookie Dan Mclay (Fortuneo-Vital Concept) to take the victory, showing his time spent on the velodrome this spring has not hurt his sprinting, but has helped it.
Greg van Avermaet leads the Tour overall, ahead by more than five minutes in the standings. He is a strong guy to keep us there in the final.
“I wanted Kittel’s wheel, I kept looking for his wheel”. I knew it would be the right thing to go early.
However, the Manxman said he has little chance of staying ahead of world champion Sagan – victor of the points classification in the last four years – for the rest of the Tour.
On a very hot day in southwestern France, Yukiya Arashiro and Jan Barta attacked from the off.
“Oh my God – that was terrifying”. (Dimension Data principal) Doug Ryder believed in me and Deloitte believed in me and they built a team capable of doing it’.
With temperatures as high as 36 degrees (98 F), the breakaway riders’ lead started to decrease after the first intermediate sprint when Frenchman Bryan Coquard topped rivals Michael Matthews, Peter Sagan and Kittel in their battle for the best sprinter’s green jersey.
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Stage seven ends with an ascent of the category-one Col d’Aspin, which is 12km long at an average gradient of 6.5 per cent, and then a descent to the finish at Lac de Payolle. Froome is in fifth place, 5:17 out of the lead while Quintana is seventh and Aru sits ninth.
