ONE MORE FOR THE ROAD?

Manx Missile in a race against time to finally overtake Merckx

- Mike Walters

MARK CAVENDISH will take aim at immortality on his Tour de France encore in Florence today – on a mission to prove you are never too old for fairy-tales.

At 39, the Manx Missile reboots his pursuit of a record 35th stage win, which would take him clear of Belgian legend Eddy Merckx.

And if the first knight of the peloton turns the 111th edition of the world’s greatest bike race into a tale of Florence and the machine aboard his Wilier Filante set of wheels, Cavendish will be untouchable as Britain’s greatest cyclist since Penny Farthing.

He was inches away from invincible prominence in Le Tour’s record books last year until he was caught on the line in Bordeaux, cursing a cruel gear malfunction and slipping chain, by a rampaging Jasper Philipsen.

Just 24 hours later his pursuit of greatness was over as he crashed out with a broken collarbone.