Giro d'Italia 2022: How 'incredible' Mark Cavendish proved doubters wrong with Stage 3 win

Updated 08/05/2022 at 19:47 GMT

"I was on the side of things where I thought, ‘I don't think we'll see the old Mark Cavendish back again,’ but happy to be proved wrong. " Eurosport pundits look at how Mark Cavendish defied the odds to return to his best form after being written off. Stream the Giro d'Italia live and on-demand on discovery+.

Giro d'Italia Stage 3 highlights as Mark Cavendish claims impressive sprint victory

Mark Cavendish’s stunning sprint victory on the third stage of the Giro d’Italia proved to be another impressive step on the comeback trail for the 36-year-old.

The Manxman’s career looked to be nearing it’s end in 2020, but the following year saw him back to something approaching his best, claiming a number of victories as well as matching Eddy Merckx’s record for stage wins at the Tour de France.

Returning to the Giro for the first time since 2013, Cavendish claimed his 16th career stage win at the race - crossing the line quickest in Balatonfüred.

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Discussing Cavendish’s win, and overall resurgence on the Breakaway afterwards, Robbie McEwen admitted he was happy to be wrong about writing the rider off previously.

“It does feel a long time ago and fortunes change,” said McEwen. “And I’ve got to say I was on the side of things where I thought, ‘I don't think we'll see the old Mark Cavendish back again,’ but happy to be proved wrong.

“It was a fantastic result and he's carrying on from where he left off at last year's Tour de France.”

Dan Lloyd also revealed he didn’t expect Cavendish to rediscover his form and called his upturn in fortunes ‘incredible’.

Lloyd said: “I was looking at how long he's sprinting through and thinking he's going to start fading and somebody is going to get past him but it was a remarkable sprint.

“We’ve just slipped back into ‘Well, yeah, Cav has won.’ And it's literally just over a year ago I never thought I’d see Mark Cavendish ever win another pro bike race.

“Then he went a couple of days at Turkey and we're like, ‘well, it's not the Tour de France, is it?’ then he goes back to win stages at the Tour de France. Now he's about winning stages of the Giro d’Italia nine years after he was last here.

“I mean, you can be blasé about it and you can just chat normally about a bit. It's incredible.”

'It's number 16!' - Mark Cavendish wins Stage 3 of the Giro

‘He’s proven why he can still go to the Tour de France’

Adam Blythe believes that Cavendish’s latest win could open the door selection for the Tour de France for his team Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl.

Blythe said: “Obviously brilliant today and obviously he's been away on training camp before this. He's got ready for this race like it is his Tour de France. He might not go to the Tour de France this year, so he has to prove himself with the same amount of hunger, the same amount of drive, going into the Tour de France as going into this Giro to prove what he can do.

“In my eyes. Mark is the greatest sprinter of all time, and he's proven today why he still can go to the Tour de France, if he gets selected to.

“It's a very difficult decision for his team to make. But I think in terms of what this means, it's also hunger for Mark.

“It's just taking those little bits of food and building up for that main course of what might be to come later in the year because we all know Cav, we all know what he's capable of, and we know how [Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team general manager] Patrick LeFevere changes his mind with things.”