Manx Missile Mark Cavendish equals Tour de France stage wins record

The Isle of Man's Mark Cavendish matched the Tour de France stage wins record as he collected the 34th of his career in Carcassonne.

Cavendish looked exhausted as he collapsed to the floor after the finish before being mobbed by his team-mates.

"It's tiring," he said. "I can't even think about (the record). I'm afraid I'm so dead after 220km in that heat, that wind and that finale, phwoar."

Cavendish moves level with the Belgian Eddy Merckx, a five-time overall winner of the Tour, who took the last of his stage wins in 1975.

If he can stay safe through the mountain stages to come, the Manxman should have two more opportunities to take the record outright, first on stage 19 into Libourne and then on the final day on the Champs-Elysees in Paris.