In cycling, the Tour de France is by far the most prestigious race. Mark Cavendish just broke the record for the most individual wins (35). This achievement is even more impressive when you compare his results to other winning riders. Most riders with many wins have a few very, very good years. They then get old or hurt and that’s it. Cav was just short of the record when he was 29. He has some health issues and crashed and it looked like his career was over. Nobody told him. After a long drought of wins, he came back to tie the record. It then took 4 more years to break the record.
Only 3 riders on this chart are active. This will be Cav’s last year (39 years old). Pogacar (25 years old) is a phenomenal all round rider and will eventually win 20+ total stages by the time he is in his mid-30s. Philipsen (26 years old), is a pure sprinter and will probably win 12+ total stages before he is 30. With very few exceptions, sprinters don’t win much after 30.
Tools: Google sheets. Data: wikipedia and procycling stats.
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In cycling, the Tour de France is by far the most prestigious race. Mark Cavendish just broke the record for the most individual wins (35). This achievement is even more impressive when you compare his results to other winning riders. Most riders with many wins have a few very, very good years. They then get old or hurt and that’s it. Cav was just short of the record when he was 29. He has some health issues and crashed and it looked like his career was over. Nobody told him. After a long drought of wins, he came back to tie the record. It then took 4 more years to break the record.
Only 3 riders on this chart are active. This will be Cav’s last year (39 years old). Pogacar (25 years old) is a phenomenal all round rider and will eventually win 20+ total stages by the time he is in his mid-30s. Philipsen (26 years old), is a pure sprinter and will probably win 12+ total stages before he is 30. With very few exceptions, sprinters don’t win much after 30.
Tools: Google sheets. Data: wikipedia and procycling stats.