Cycling News : Cavendish-I felt like before I was going out fishing, but with holes in my net

The 2021 Tour de France green jersey winner Mark Cavendish thinks his triumphant return to the world's most prestigious cycle race after battling the Epstein-Barr virus and clinical depression is nothing short of a "fairytale."

The 36-year-old won four stages at this year's Tour to equal the all-time record of 34 stage wins held since 1975 by Belgian great Eddy Merckx and cement his place as one of cycling's best ever sprinters.

Cavendish told SNTV in a wide-ranging interview that it felt "overwhelming" winning his first stage in five years in Fougeres on day four of the race after thinking his career may be over when he contracted the debilitating Epstein-Barr virus in 2017 which meant he could hardly walk upstairs, let alone ride his bike.

An ill-fated comeback at the 2017 Tour saw him fracture his shoulder in a crash, which was followed by a relapse of the virus and his 2018 Tour de France ended prematurely when he missed the time cut on Stage 7.

The "Manx Missile" was then dropped by his team Dimension Data for the 2019 version while he was battling clinical depression and his new team Bahrain-McLaren also omitted him from their line-up for the Covid-delayed 2020 Tour.

In 2021 Cavendish returned to Belgian outfit Deceuninck-Quick Step, who he recently signed a one year contract extension with, and after winning professional stages for the first time since 2018 at the Tour of Turkey and the Tour of Belgium was named the team's lead sprinter for the Tour de France to replace the injured Sam Bennett.

Cavendish went on to win four stages of the race to supplement the 30 he had claimed between 2008 and 2016 and pick up his second green jersey after 2011, but missed the chance to eclipse Merckx's record on the final stage, finishing third on Paris's famous Champs-Elysees.

A phenomenal year took a sour twist when Cavendish's season ended abruptly in a freak crash at November's Six Days of Ghent track meet, where he broke three ribs and punctured a lung.

The cyclist also revealed earlier this month that while he was recovering from the crash at home armed robbers broke in and "violently attacked" him, threatened his wife and children "at knifepoint" and stole a Luis Vuitton suitcase and two "high value" watches.