for Cav.
He doesn’t seem to come alive at the Tour de France until stage five, stages that he supposed to win come and go but things conspire against him. This time it was the usual crashes but combined with a bit of bronchitis.
He’s been behind his main rivals, Sagan and Greipel, in the intermediate sprints but when things really matter – and winning stages matters more than sprinting for 8th to 10th on an intermediate – and things go as planned there’s only one winner. From head on it looks like he’s squeaked it. From above or the side it shows the other sprinters are sprinting for the minor places.
Stage five of this Tour things went to plan. Very little worked required by his team for most of the race as Orica-GreeEdge did their work for the yellow jersey. When required the OPQS team hit the front, with the battered Tony Martin fighting against being skinned alive to power Cav through. For Steegmans to deliver Cav perfectly for that 24th stage victory in his Tour de France career. And he knows his history.
He knows where he stands and who is below him and who is above him on that victories table.