Mark Cavendish has finally sealed a record 35th Tour de France stage win.
The Manx Missile, cycling's greatest sprinter, was first across the line in stage five of Le Tour to seal his place in history and move in front of Eddy Merckx, whom he was tied with since 2021.
Cavendish, without a lead out team-mate in the final 500m, moved himself from right to left and away from Jasper Philipsen to storm ahead of the pack - and he was comfortably clear enough to raise his arms in celebration when crossing the line.
The 39-year-old was embraced by wife Peta, his children and other team-mates at the finish.
Cavendish said: "We just wanted the run in to do it. I'm in a little bit of disbelief. Astana have put a big gamble on to make sure I'm here to win at least one stage.
"We've done it. We worked exactly what we wanted to do, how to build the team, the equipment. Every detail has been put specifically to today. We said in Torino [stage three] it would be nice to sprint. This doesn't mean we'll be top of the rankings or anything but the Tour de France is bigger than cycling."
Cavendish, who was recently knighted, has battled back from depression and Epstein-Barr virus, and having failed to win a stage in 2019 and 2020, he feared his career was coming to an end.
But he won four times in 2021 as a rider for Quick-Step only to be left out of the team a year later with his contract expiring.
However he signed a short-term deal with Kazakh team Astana in 2023, who have backed him to break the record.
He had dropped out of last year's Tour because of a crash in stage eight that resulted in a broken collar bone - having announced his retirement. But he decided to return for this year's race and one final roll of the dice.
Cavendish looked to be struggling in the opening two hilly stages, and was seen vomiting on the side of the road, but there was no panic and he admitted that this particular stage was always their focus.
"It normally takes me days to get into it but I know how it works," he added. "I've done 15 Tours de France now. I don't like bad days. Things still have to go your way. We didn't nail it as a team like we wanted to but the boys got me there and I got on to whatever train was there and I was able to win."
Asked about his mental fortitude, he said: "I'm not as physically as good as anyone else but it's beneficial to be able to use your head."
Wife Peta, in tears, told Eurosport: "I can't believe it but I can believe it. I'm so pleased, I'm so proud of him."
"He f***ing nailed it," his Astana team-mate Cees Bol said, swiftly apologising for his language before rejoining the celebrations.
And Tour race director Christian Prudhomme told ITV : "Everyone has a smile today, even Eddy Merckx. It's a 15-year career, the best sprinter in the history of the Tour. He's much more now. Unbelievable. No one believed in him now, everyone thought it was too late apart from him. And today he won. It's a wonderful story."