Cavendish won stages four through six of this year’s race.Mark Cavendish raced to his 33rd stage win at the Tour de France, moving within one win of Belgian legend Eddy Merckx’s all-time record.After a flawless lead-out, the 36-year-old Manx rider won stage 10 in Valence, beating Jasper Philipsen and Wout van Aert.Deceuninck-Quick-Step's Cavendish won stages four through six of this Tour.Two more sprints are scheduled this week, and two more in week last. The Champs-Elysees finale will be the final, where Cavendish has won an unprecedented four times.Tadej Pogacar, the defending champion, finished in safety in the main group to keep the yellow jersey as leader.Cavendish has also increased his lead in the green jersey points classification, and is now leading Australia's Michael Matthews by an impressive 59 points. Sonny Colbrelli from Italy is 23 points behind.Cavendish, who won 2011's green jersey, said, "It was an old school, run-of the-mill, just like you read in cycling magazines, textbook lead out.""We got the boys on the front to pull as fast and as hard as they can, so that no one can pass you."It was only the last 150m that I did anything, and it was all because of my team."This victory, of his three victories in the race this year, was most reminiscent to the way he surged for his 30 stage wins between 2008-2016.Cavendish, who was the fastest sprinter in the race, was able to keep his hands on Michael Morkov's wheel to launch late and still have time to celebrate with the rest of the pack.He lavished praises on his team-mates once more, saying that he was humbled to have world champion Julian Alaphilippe and Tour of Flanders winner Kasper Asgreen pulling for him.Other elite sprinters are also missing. Caleb Ewan broke his collarbone in a stage three crash. This was won by Tim Merlier who has since left, and Dylan Groenewegen was not chosen.Cavendish's achievements here are not diminished by this, as he has not been used to riding in the sprint train that was preparing to ride last year for Sam Bennett, who won the green jersey.Cavendish had made a comeback earlier in the year, winning four games. However, he took the chance to help Bennett and has completely repaid Deceunick Quick-Step for his faith in him in signing him after years of sickness and loss.Cavendish, who did not contest the intermediate sprint, stated after the stage finish that his sole focus is on stage wins and that the green shirt is a bonus.Cavendish looks increasingly likely to win his second green jersey, as long as he gets to Paris.Wednesday's Stage 11 will be decisive for general classification contenders. It features two ascents to the famed Mont Ventoux.Stage 10 ResultsMark Cavendish (GB/Deceunick-Quick-Step), 4hrs 14mins 07secs Jasper Philipsen(Bel/Jumbo-Visa) Nacer Bouhanni, (Fra/Arkea-Samsic), Michael Matthews (Aus/Team Bike-Exchange), Michael Morkov (Den/Deceuninck-Quick-Step), Andre Greipel (“Ger/Israel Start Up Nation”) Peter Sagan (Svk/Bora-Hansgrohe”) Cees Bol (Ned/Team DSM).General classification after stage 10.
