cavendish began 2007 "laboriously", said the daily sports paper, "l'équipe". it quoted one of cavendish's team-mates, roger hammond: "to be honest, he started the season so catastrophically that the staff were wondering what they could enter mark for so that he could finish the race.". cavendish's breakthrough came at the grote scheldeprijs race in belgium, which he won overall after failing to even finish any of his previous races. he went on to win stages at the four days of dunkirk and the tour of catalonia volta a catalunya, the third oldest cycling stage race in the world, and that brought selection for the 2007 tour de france, starting in london. he crashed in stages 1 and 2. and abandoned on stage 8 as the race reached the alps, having taken two top-ten placings but unhappy not to have had a top-five placing.