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Mark Cavendish was the last rider over the line on stage 19 of the Tour de France, arriving at the summit of Isola 2000 safely within the time cut.
Ahead of the day, some worried if the race’s Queen stage might prove too much for the 39-year-old sprinter. It counted over 4,500m of elevation, and climbed to over 2,800m altitude over its penultimate climb, the Cime de la Bonette.
Instead, with five minutes and three seconds to spare, Cavendish finished alongside his Astana Qazaqstan teammates, Davide Ballerini and Cees Bol, 43 minutes and 46 seconds after the stage winner, Tadej Pogačar.
The moment was marked unceremoniously on X by Astana Qazaqstan’s official account. “All good today,” the team wrote. Cavendish looks set to finish his farewell Tour.
Here are four more stories of riders who cut it fine to stay in the Tour de France.
Fabio Jakobsen – 15 seconds – 2022
(Image credit: Getty)
There were tears when Fabio Jakobsen made it inside the time cut at the 2022 Tour de France. The sprinter collapsed into a heap along the barriers after the line on stage 17, having pulled himself up 18% gradients, breathless at the summit of the Peyragudes ski station.
How is the time cut calculated?
The time cut exists essentially to keep things fair across the Tour de France, so riders can’t finish hours behind the stage winner and gain more recovery time.
The time cut is calculated in two parts. Before the race, the organisers assign a ‘coefficient’ rating to each stage, from one to six, ascending in difficulty. They then take the average speed of the stage winner and allow a percentage of that for the time cut, according to the selected coefficient. This can range from 7% to 20%, with 25% sometimes offered in time trials.
Generally, the harder and faster the stage, the more generous the time cut is. On today’s stage 19 of the 2024 Tour, for example, ranked with a coefficient of six, the jury put in place a 20% cut, equating to 48 minutes and 49 seconds.
Not believing he’d make it, Jakobsen’s Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl bosses had ordered his teammates to leave him on the final climb. One of them was Florian Sénéchal, who waited to cheer the Dutchman home, and welled up when speaking to the media.
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“After [Jakobsen’s life-threatening crash in] Poland, I saw his face… and it was destroyed,” Sénechal said. “Today, chapeau. He has my respect. He is my friend. I always wanted to give the maximum for him.
“I just said to him, ‘Push your limit for your family, for your teammates, and you will win on the Champs-Élysées [on Sunday] for sure.”
Perhaps still suffering from his effort four days before, Jakobsen finished 13th on the final day, but finished his debut Tour.
Victor Campenaerts and co – 5 seconds – 2021
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Ben O’Connor’s 2021 stage win in the rain at the Alpine resort of Tignes stands as one of the crowning moments of the Australian’s career. But for those at the back of the race that day, it almost finished in heartbreak.
O’Connor’s slower stage-winning speed of 32.6km/h meant the race commissaires were less generous with the time cut on stage nine, announcing it at 37 minutes and 20 seconds, or 14% of the victor’s time. This left many riders in a race to survive, with sprinters Arnaud Démare and Bryan Coquard among seven who arrived late.
Still, a group of four riders managed to cut it particularly fine, crossing the line five seconds before the jury’s axe came down. Victor Campenaerts, Greg Van Avermaert, Jelle Wallays and Grøndahl Amund Jansen all all scraped within the limit to fight another day.
Arnaud Démare – 45 seconds – 2024
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Arriving alone as the last-placed rider on stage 15 of this year’s race, Démare crawled over the line with 45 seconds to spare.
The Frenchman was the first to drop behind the pack on the day, doing so just metres into the 198km stage. He later lost contact with the grupetto, finishing 35 seconds behind second-to-last Fernando Gaviria.
Démare’s Arkéa-Samsic teammates and soigneurs waited in suspense at the finish. When the Frenchman finally arrived, stalked by the broom wagon, he tossed his bike against the metal railings, and fell onto his backside on the floor.
Démare lasted four more stages of the race, before bowing out ‘OTL’ – outside time limit – on stage 19.
Andrew Talansky – 5 minutes – 2014
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Although Andrew Talansky’s time cut survival margin is not the narrowest in Tour history, his struggle on stage 11 in 2014 is one of the race’s most famous.
Bandaged up from an earlier crash, the American began stage 11 in pain, and slipped off the back of the bunch with 80km to go. He suffered on for another 20km, before he stopped, parked his bike on a guardrail, and sat down. There, his team director, Robbie Hunter, gave him a pep talk.
“I’d never encourage a person to get off their bike,” Hunter said afterwards. “I myself have been in a position where I’ve stopped Tours de France previously and a couple of hours later I regretted it. The only thing I said to Andrew is ‘If you’re going to stop, make sure it’s the right decision.'”
With a TV motorbike for company, the Garmin-Sharp rider plugged away and turned up at the finish alone, 32 minutes behind the day’s winner, Tony Gallopin. He then had to soft pedal to his team bus, which was parked the second furthest away.
Talansky was a non-starter the following day.
Missing the time cut
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So far this year, six riders have missed the time cut, the first of which being former British champion Fred Wright on stage 11. Mark Cavendish has come close on a few occasions – safe by four and a half minutes on stage four, three minutes on stage 14, and less than two minutes on stage 15 – but has until now ridden to his calculations.
In fact, only once in his 15 Tour participations has Cavendish been forced to abandon after running out of time. That came in the Alps on stage 11 in 2018, on a category-one finish at La Rosière.
The Brit did, however, miss the time cut on another stage. On day 18 in 2011, the then HTC-High Road rider was part of an 88-man group that finished two minutes adrift of the limit on the Galibier. Keen not to lose the majority of the peloton, the race commissaires decided to reinstate them all.
The commissaires were less forgiving two years later, when on stage four in 2013, Ted King dropped back in the team time trial, and was cut loose from the race by seven seconds.
The margin was a lot larger in 2021 for Nic Dlamini, who finished 40 minutes after the time cut on stage nine to Tignes, an hour and 25 minutes down on the winner, O’Connor. “This is a race that I wanted to honour, and honour my dream. It was my first Tour de France and I knew it would be hard but I’ve honoured that dream,” the South African said afterwards.
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