Mark Cavendish missed out on a record-breaking 35th stage victory at the Tour de France on Monday afternoon. 

The Manx Missile is competing in his last Le Tour, having delayed retirement by a year in order to attempt an historic win which would move him clear of the legendary Eddy Merckx on 34 wins. 

Riding for Astana Qazaqstan, Cav had targeted Monday’s third stage as a possible chance for a sprint victory after an extremely tough opening couple of days. 

Indeed, such was the gruelling nature of stages one and two that the entire peloton was happy to enjoy a processional ride from Piacenza to Torino on what was the last full day this year’s Le Tour takes place in Italy before moving to France today (Tuesday). 

Towards the end of the 230.8-kilometre route – the longest stage in this year’s race – a chaotic finale unfolded as all the sprinters’ teams jostled for position on the roads of Turin. 

This led to a crash inside the final 3km in which a number of riders went down, including one of the favourites for the stage in Jasper Philipsen. 

Thankfully, Cav escaped unscathed from the incident but he and several Astana team-mates were held up in the crash which ended the Manxman’s hopes of contesting the bunch sprint. 

In his absence, team-mate Davide Ballerini came to the fore at the finish and crossed the line in eighth.  

But it was African rider Biniam Girmay who stunned the more fancied sprinters by surging clear to claim a memorable and historic victory, the very first Eritrean to win a stage at the Tour de France. 

And there was more history behind him as Richard Carapaz became the first rider from Ecuador to wear the yellow jersey as leader of the general classification. 

Today, Tuesday’s stage sees the Tour head over the border into France in what will be a tough day featuring the infamous Col du Galibier mountain.  

But both the Wednesday and Thursday stages offer up further opportunities for Cav and his fellow sprinters to come to the fore, giving the Manx Missile another chance to make yet more history as he brings the curtain down on his illustrious career. `