Tour de France: Cavendish makes it three on stage 10

Mark Cavendish added a third victory to his haul from the Tour de France, sprinting to victory once again in Valence on stage 10 after another pristine lead out from Deceuninck-QuickStep.

The Manxman extended his lead in the points classification with another 50 points at the finish, edging out Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) and Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Fenix) in the dash for the line.

On a stage threatened by crosswinds in the final 30 kilometres but never really torn apart by them, the Belgian squad were fully in control, having managed the battle for the break early on, bossed the peloton as the winds hit later, and then set up their perfect lead out at the finish.

"Old school, run of the mill, like you read in a cycling magazine, textbook lead-out," the grinning Cavendish said after the finish. "We just got the lads on the front and pulled as fast as they can so no one can come up and try to come past in the finish.

"We knew this finish - I didn't make it the last time we came to this finish – it was in 2015, I got dropped and nearly cried and Greipel won. I studied it – we knew if we took the last corner wide you can keep the speed. It split in the wind, but we didn't try to split it. We weren't bothered by it. We were confident we had the team for the sprint.

"Again, I'm just humbled. You got the winner of the Tour of Flanders, the world champion who's also worn the yellow jersey also here. You've got Michael Mørkøv who's gone to the Olympics for the Madison to try and win that. You've got the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad winner leaving everything on the road for me. I have to finish it off. I didn't really do anything – I did 150 metres – it was the team I have to thank for everything."

Despite the likes of Arkéa-Samsic, Alpecin-Fenix and Bora-Hansgrohe threatening to rival the Belgian team in the final kilometres, it was all about the men in blue as Michael Mørkøv deposited Cavendish at 150 metres to go following the late bend onto the 250-metre finishing straight.

Fast-closing Belgians Van Aert and Philipsen came back on either side of the 36-year-old, but there was simply no way past before the line with the riders sprinting into a headwind, and Cavendish added his 33rd Tour de France stage win to his palmarès by a wheel length from the Belgian champion.

Nacer Bouhanni (Arkéa-Samsic) and Michael Matthews (Team BikeExchange) rounded out the top five on the stage, but there was no doubt at the winner – Deceuninck-QuickStep's dominance on the flat as inevitable as yellow jersey Tadej Pogačar's in the Alps.

The Slovenian continues in the maillot jaune after some attentive riding in the wind during the latter parts of the stage, his lead unaltered at 2:01 ahead of Ben O'Connor (AG2R Citroën) and Rigoberto Urán (EF Education-Nippo) at 5:18.

Cavendish's green jersey lead, 38 points from Matthews at the start of the day, is now up to 59 as a result of the finishing sprint, despite the Australian and Bahrain Victorious rider Sonny Colbrelli picking up points at the intermediate sprint earlier in the day.

How it unfolded

The tenth stage of the 2021 Tour de France took the peloton 190.7 kilometres from Albertville south-west to Valence as the sprinters returned to the fore on the fourth flat sprint stage of the race.

On the day after the rest day and a brutal weekend in the Alps, the stage featured few obstacles for the remaining sprinters in the race, with just one classified climb – the fourth-category Col de Couz (7.5km at 2.8 per cent) coming after 59.5 kilometres. The hilltop intermediate sprint after 83 kilometres offered more points towards the green jersey, while an unclassified climb at Bearegard-Baret (5.3km at 3.8 per cent) came 37 kilometres from the finish.

With little on the stage to fight over for any potential breakaway, there wasn't much of a battle for the break to start the day. Deceuninck-QuickStep's Tim Declercq was on patrol duty at the front of the peloton in the early kilometres and quickly let two riders jump away in the form of Tosh van der Sande (Lotto Soudal) and Hugo Houle (Astana-Premier Tech).

The duo attacked after three kilometres and were let go without much resistance, and they eased out to a gap of six minutes after 20 kilometres of action. Back in the peloton, Team DSM, and UAE Team Emirates worked on the front to control the situation.

Colbrelli went on the move shortly afterwards, but he was quickly marked by Deceuninck-QuickStep with the Italian champion a threat to Cavendish's points classification lead.

The Belgian team moved to the front after 50 kilometres as Declercq settled into his usual spot at the head of the peloton. Out front, Houle took the solitary KOM point atop the Col de Couz, with the breakaway holding just a 3:30 lead over the top with 130 kilometres to go.

Back in the peloton, there were no sprinters in trouble on the climb as Declercq remained in control tapping out a steady pace. 15 kilometres later, they hit the front for the intermediate sprint.

There, Colbrelli took 15 points for third place ahead of Matthews, Philipsen and Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) as Cavendish remained in the peloton, his lead cut to 25 points over Matthews and 32 over Colbrelli.

After the rush to the sprint and a nervous approach back to the flatlands with crosswinds possibly threatening the peloton, the lead of Van der Sande and Houle was cut to just 1:20, though the wind didn't materialise as they continued south towards Valence.

A crash at the 68-kilometre mark saw Jumbo-Visma and Ineos Grenadiers riders among those hitting the deck at a pinch point in the road, with Sepp Kuss, Mike Teunissen, Richie Porte, Geraint Thomas, and Luke Rowe all hitting the deck. All involved were quickly back up and running, however.

By the time the riders hit 50 kilometres to go, everyone was back in the peloton and the work up front by Bora-Hansgrohe, UAE Team Emirates, and Deceuninck-QuickStep – among others – had cut the gap to under a minute. BikeExchange joined the action soon after, working on the front as the riders hit the climb to Beauregard-Baret at 40 kilometres to go.

Van der Sande's day out front ended on the climb while Houle battled on alone, 30 seconds in the lead. The Canadian himself was caught before the top, though the hot pace set at the front was no trouble for the sprinters behind.

It was at the 30-kilometre mark, following a nervous period in the peloton, where the pace really upped as Deceuninck-QuickStep hit the front with world champion Julian Alaphilippe at the helm. Buffeted by crosswinds from the east, it was go time.

At the same moment, Colbrelli suffered a horribly inopportune puncture, but up front the wind wasn't strong enough up front to create gaps despite the 60kph+ speeds. After a short chase, the Italian champion made it back to the peloton without too much trouble, rejoining the front of the race with 22 kilometres to go.

Bora-Hansgrohe, Jumbo-Visma, and Deceuninck-QuickStep pushed the pace once more 17 kilometres out, briefly creating a split on the front before yellow jersey Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) closed the small gap.

A handful of kilometres later, there was another split, this time more decisive, as Deceuninck-QuickStep pushed on again. Nonetheless, the big sprint names and GC men were all in the front group of around 50 riders, with only sprint also-ran Cees Bol (Team DSM) missing out.

EF Education-Nippo took control of the peloton heading into the final 10 kilometres, though there were no further splits in the wind despite the high pace. At the three-kilometre mark, it was once again Deceuninck-QuickStep up front with Alaphilippe, Kasper Asgreen, Davide Ballerini, Michael Mørkøv working for Cavendish for the final sprint.

A mixture of other teams were up front, including Bora-Hansgrohe, though no other lead-out train was as cohesive as that of the Belgian squads'. Inside the final kilometre, Alpecin-Fenix and Arkéa-Samsic jumped to the front.

However, neither team, with their partly constructed lead outs, could hold a candle to the Deceuninck-QuickStep machine. Cavendish finished off his teammates' work with ease to take a third win in 10 days at the Tour de France.