Mark Cavendish matched the record of the great Eddy Merckx as he won his 34th Tour de France stage in Carcassonne.

Continuing a remarkable sporting comeback, a rider who feared his career was over in the winter won his fourth stage of this year’s Tour, writing his name ever further into the race’s history books as he matched a tally which had felt out of reach during the struggles of recent years.

The 220km stage from Nimes had been marked as a day for the breakaway but would instead come down to a bunch sprint in the citadel as Cavendish’s Deceuninck-QuickStep team worked all day to control the peloton.

The sprint finish meant there were no major changes in the general classification, with Tadej Pogacar continuing to lead by five minutes 18 seconds from Rigoberto Uran.

Friday’s stage had been tipped for a breakaway – Carcassonne, hosting a stage for the 11th time, had never previously seen a sprint finish – but with only three riders getting into the day’s break, the balance tipped back in favour of the fast men.

The race began to come back together in the final 70km, with the upping of pace leading to a nasty crash on a downhill section which would end the race of Simon Yates – who was using the Tour to prepare for the Tokyo Olympics.