Mark Cavendish confirmed for final Tour de France appearance

Sir Mark Cavendish will head to his final Tour de France as the first ever knight to race the Grand Tour, it was announced on Monday.

Although the news was long-trailed, his participation at his 15th and final Tour was confirmed by Astana Qazaqstan, who also detailed the support the Manxman will have in his bid to break the stage win record.

His lead-out train will be formed of Cees Bol, Michael Mørkøv and Davide Ballerini, with the latter two also present the last time Cavendish won a stage, in 2021.

Also present for the Kazakh team in Florence this Saturday will be Alexey Lutsenko, Yevgeniy Fedorov, Harold Tejada and Michele Gazzoli.

His first chance at Tour immortality will come on stage three of this year's race, from Piacenza to Torino, the first sprint opportunity.

At present, Cavendish is tied on 34 for the record for Tour stage wins with Eddy Merckx, but will have around eight opportunities to best this over the three weeks of the event.

Earlier in June, the 39-year-old, who is in his last year as a professional cyclist, followed Bradley Wiggins, Chris Hoy and Jason Kenny in becoming a cycling knight. However, Cavendish will be the first of this select group to race the Tour post-knighthood.

Last month, Cavendish took the 164th road victory of his storied career, which put him one win ahead of Italian sprinter Mario Cipollini, who landed 163 victories during his professional career, making him the most successful male sprinter in cycling history. 

He narrowly missed out on victory at the Tour last year, finishing second on stage seven into Bordeaux, before crashing out the next day. At the end of the 2023, he opted to continue on for one final year with Astana Qazaqstan with the aim of landing one more win at the Tour.

This year, he has so far tasted victory at the Tour Colombia and the Tour of Hungary.

Cavendish raced the recent Tour de Suisse in an effort to build up his ability to complete the most mountainous tests, of which there are many at this year's Tour de France. As much as speed at the end of flat stages, it will be staying power in hilly days which will allow the Manxman the opportunity to beat the record.