After Mark Cavendish (Astana Cazacstan) won his 35th Tour de France victory in Saint Vurba and the entire cycling world, friends, family and rivals alike, rejoiced, perhaps the most important reaction was the great Eddy Merckx.

The greatest rider in the history of cycling was, after all, the only man who, before yesterday's historic stage, was tied with Cavendish for 34 Tour wins. That was when Manx Missile won the sprint contest and took the stage win record from Merckx.

When Cavendish tied Merckx's record of 34 Tour de France stage wins in 2021, the cover of L'Equipe read "Le Cannibale du Sprint. This morning, the French paper simply read "Mark Cavendish the Cannibale."

But despite the French paper's lending of Merckx's famous nickname, only respect was shown by the 79-year-old Merckx, who responded to the feat on social media.

"Mark Cavendish, congratulations on your historic accomplishment! You are such a nice guy to break my record," Merckx said in an Instagram story.

Of course, the way Merckx and Cavendish fought was very different, with the Belgian great winning every stage, including mountains and time trials, to reach a record of five Tour de France GC wins.

When asked for a message to Merckx, Cavendish was quick to correct him, saying, "It's not his record, it's our record," but also pointed out that 35 is just a number and does not take the shine off the greatest rider in men's cycling history.

"I love Eddie. It's not his record, it's our record, but it's a number," Cavendish told VTM Nieuws. 'It doesn't take anything away from the great Eddy Merckx. Heddy Merckx is Heddy Merckx."

Merckx kept his promise to congratulate Cavendish starting in 2021, and despite his competitive spirit that has not diminished in retirement, he previously told La Gazzetta dello Sport, "I will not lose sleep over it."

And it is certainly that shared hyper-competitive nature that has brought him and Cavendish the most complete level of success: at age 39, Cavendish competed in the 2024 Tour de France, but serious illness, depression, a fall and broken collarbone at the 2023 Tour and other hardships that made 35th place a distant memory.

Cavendish and Merckx are currently apart atop the Tour stage win leaderboard, but Manx Missile will not be satisfied with just one win.

Today's stage to Dijon is his first attempt at 36 stages, a number the cycling world has not dared to talk about: ...... Cavendish aside, he was clearly aware of his level before yesterday's victory and was dreaming of "36, 37, even 40 stages" before the race began. The goal was not to beat Merckx and stand alone, but to win itself, as it always is.

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