Giro d’Italia: Mark Cavendish enhances his legend

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  • The third stage was summed up with the 160th professional victory of the British cyclist, on a day in which Mathieu van der Poel continued to lead.

All sports have myths, legends that grow bigger thanks to their triumphs. Mark Cavendish is undoubtedly one of the greatest sprinters of all time. His name will always be inscribed in the golden pages of cycling as a sensational sprinter, in his youth and now in his maturity, with a victory in the Giro just 13 days after his 37th birthday, whose birthday he will have to celebrate on the bike and running an Italian round that this Sunday left Hungarian lands to return to its place of origin.

The Giro was immensely lucky because Cavendish’s triumph was the best response to a third stage of those that invited a siesta, where it was difficult to stay awake since nothing was happening; a permitted getaway and the cyclists talking to each other and having a few laughs. And so for almost 200 kilometers along Hungarian roads looking for one of the banks of the lake balatontourist attraction of the country and the largest of those existing in central Europe.

The magnificent final kilometer

The stage was summed up in a magnificent final stretch of one kilometer with the fathers and mothers of the runners closing their eyes because the slightest carelessness, at 60 kilometers per hour, if a fall occurred could have dire consequences. But like tightrope walkers, the throwers sprang into action by Cavendishfor Fernando Gaviria, Cabel Evan, Arnaud Demare and even the leader, Mathieu van der Poel, who changed the ‘pink jersey’ for work overalls in favor of Jakub Mareczko, which he lost along the way in the confusion caused by the tremendous speed. Nobody went to the ground. It would have been an injustice. Apart from the physical pain of the victims, it would have been a crime to remove the shine from the only moment of true quality of the day.

Cavendish added his 16th victory in the Giro, although he had not wet since 2013. It was the trump 160 in his record and above all it showed that old warriors never die. It was already seen last year in the tours of his return, after considering withdrawing from cycling during the year of the pandemic. He shone like him in his best times in the French round to the point that he matched Eddy Merckx’s wins in the Grande Boucle. And if he did not overcome the 34 victories of ‘El Caníbal’ by the territories of the Tour to maintain the tie, it was because Wout van Aert insisted on protecting the great myth of his country by imposing himself by surprise at the goal of the Champs-Élysées in Paris .

Etna time

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On Wednesday he will have a new opportunity in Sicily, where this Monday the race will be moved from Hungary. This Monday there is no competition, although the day has been considered as a transfer rather than a rest since the test caravan flies to Italy. Most of the team’s assistants stay in Hungary since the country’s stage round begins on Wednesday and a new structure of mechanics and masseuses are already waiting for the Giro riders in Catania hotels.

Tuesday will see if Van der Poël is able to keep the pink jersey on his back because he will have a hard test among the seas of lava that surround the ascent to the Etna volcano. He is not used to long ascents like the 22 kilometers that await him in Sicily, although the climb to Etna is longer than difficult. The Dutch phenomenon has claimed that wants to finish the Girowho is not thinking about the Tour for now and above all who wants to know the sensations when facing a Mortirolo or a Marmolada.



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