No sprinter is content with anything less than a victory, far less a man with 30 stage wins at the Tour de France to his name, but considering the circumstances, Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) could hardly be disappointed with his fourth place finish in Liège on stage 2.
Cavendish is, of course, fortunate to be at the Tour at all after his season was interrupted when he was diagnosed with the Epstein-Barr virus in early April. He returned to action at the Tour of Slovenia, but acknowledged ahead of the Grand Départ in Düsseldorf that winning a stage here would require considerable guile in light of his diminished physical condition.
The Manxman battled gamely in the finishing straight on the Quai des Ardennes on Sunday, but he had to settle for fourth place, as Marcel Kittel (Quick-Step Floors) delivered a powerful effort to win ahead of Arnaud Démare (FDJ) and André Greipel (Lotto Soudal).
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"It was as expected, really. I'm happy with that. Six weeks' training to get fourth on a Tour stage, I can only be happy," Cavendish said as he sat on the steps of the Dimension Data bus after the stage. "Okay, you always want to win, but like I said, fourth in a Tour stage is really a lot better than I expected."
Cavendish has come from a long way back just to be at this Tour, and he had to make up a lot of ground, too, in the finishing straight. His initial plan was for Mark Renshaw to deposit him on the back of the Lotto Soudal lead-out train, but Cavendish instead decided to drop back rather than risk hitting the front too soon. Just like his build-up to the Tour, there was a point when the endeavour began to feel like a lost cause.
"I must have been in about 20th or 30th with 500 metres to go," Cavendish said. "But I thought the only I'm going to get better is to start sprinting anyway. I surfed and I ended up on Marcel's wheel, and I thought, 'perfect,' but when he went I was just sprinting on his wheel. There was no way I could come past him. If I'd stayed on his wheel, I probably would have been second but Démare came and pushed me off."
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