The Missile flies again
If you’d been walking down Boulevard des Déportés in the Breton town of Fougères on the morning of Stage 4 of the 2021 Tour de France, you might have spotted a bicycle rack outside a primary school. This particular bike rack is forged in the shape of a cyclist at speed, and on it you may have noticed the inscription that reads: ‘Mark Cavendish. 30 stage wins at the Tour de France including the stage Livarot-Fougères in 2015. Tour de France green jersey in 2011; World Champion 2011.’
And if you had retraced your steps later that day, after the hubbub of the Tour’s stage finish had died down, you might have seen a green jersey wearing cyclist arrive outside the school. You would have seen him jump off his bike, take a white marker pen, scrub out the number 30 and replace it with the number 31. Then you would have seen him write the words ‘Always believe!’ and sign his name: ‘Cav’.
When the Jean de
