Hat Trick for Mark Cavendish who only needs two more Stage wins to beat Merckx Record

Mark Cavendish won his third stage on the 2021 Tour de France on Tuesday to move within one of Eddy Merckx's all-time record of 34 wins on the world's greatest race. Tadej Pogacar retained the overall race lead in Yellow

At the end of a flat run from Albertville to Valence, 36-year-old Briton Cavendish edged Belgians Wout van Aert and Jasper Philipsen at the line to also keep a firm grip on the sprint points green jersey.

Cavendish was a surprise late inclusion on Deceuninck's Tour roster and had grabbed the opportunity, ending  a five-year barren patch in the race with wins on stage four and six.

The 2009 world champion, who is known as the Manx Missile, was teamless in December before being taken in by former mentor Patrick Lefevere at the Belgian team Cavendish calls home.

The 22-year-old defending champion Tadej Pogacar retained the yellow jersey for the overall lead after keeping alow profile ahead of Wednesday's monster double climb of Mont Ventoux with its barren, lunar upper reaches.

Stage 10 took the peloton through the magnificent Rhone Valley where the 165 survivors from the original 184 starters appeared relaxed after their rest day .

Tomorrow's stage is the long awaited double ascent of Mont Ventoux - don't miss our LIVE coverage!

VIDEO : 2021 Tour de France Stage 10 Stage Highlights

Green jersey battle after Stage 10

Cavendish 218 points
Matthews 159
Colbrelli 136
Philipsen 133
Bouhanni 117
Alaphilippe 99
Sagan 92

2021 Tour de France Stage 10 Top 10

1 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Deceuninck-QuickStep 04:14:07
2 Wout Van Aert (Bel) Jumbo-Visma
3 Jasper Philipsen (Bel) Alpecin-Fenix
4 Nacer Bouhanni (Fra) Team Arkea-Samsic
5 Michael Matthews (Aus) Team BikeExchange
6 Michael Mørkøv (Den) Deceuninck-QuickStep
7 André Greipel (Ger) Israel Start-up Nation
8 Peter Sagan (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe
9 Anthony Turgis (Fra) TotalEnergies
10 Cees Bol (Ned) Team DSM

 2021 Tour de France Stage 10 GC after Stage 10

1 Tadej Pogacar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates 38:25:17
2 Ben O'Connor (Aus) AG2R Citroën Team 00:02:01
3 Rigoberto Uran (Col) EF Education-Nippo 00:05:18
4 Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Jumbo-Visma 00:05:32
5 Richard Carapaz (Ecu) Ineos Grenadiers 00:05:33
6 Enric Mas Nicolau (Spa) Movistar Team 00:05:47
7 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Bora-Hansgrohe 00:05:58
8 Alexey Lutsenko (Kaz) Astana-Premier Tech 00:06:12
9 Guillaume Martin (Fra) Cofidis 00:07:02
10 David Gaudu (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 00:07:22