“The goal is to win.” At 37 years old, Mark Cavendish is still thirsty for victories and his eyes are already on his ultimate big challenge, the stage success record on the Tour de France.
The day after the Muscat Challenge aperitif race, the British sprinter will make his debut on Saturday at the Tour of Oman where, return race or not, he will aim for the win as usual and nothing else. “The goal is to win, not a particular race, just to win,” said the man with 161 victories, in an interview with The Times.
The Isle of Man rider has always been insatiable on a bike, but has just returned from a particularly hectic few months.
At the end of the contract with Quick-Step, he first followed with some anguish the outcome of the soap opera of the B&B Hotels training, with which he had committed before it disappeared body and property, for lack of sponsor.
After a few weeks of confusion, he ended up landing at Astana, where his former teammate Alexandre Vinokourov, who became manager of the Kazakh team, extended his hand to him for a season.
Knife to the throat
This winter, Mark Cavendish also had to evacuate a traumatic personal experience. Last Tuesday, two men were sentenced to 12 and 15 years in prison respectively for having robbed his home in 2021, beating the “Cav” and threatening him with a knife to his throat, in front of his children.
His wife Peta, pregnant at the time, explained in court that this ultra-violent episode had “transformed a warm home into a constant reminder of fear and threats”.
For Mark Cavendish, these upheavals were like his career, a succession of ups and downs, which will soon be the subject of a documentary on Netflix.
In seventeen of activity, the Briton will have known the pangs of a depression, the offensive of the Epstein-Barr virus and the glory of an Olympic silver medal in 2016, a world title in Copenhagen in 2011 and, of course, 34 stage victories in the Tour de France.
This summer, unless a new twist comes to cross out his plans, “The man of Man” will take up the immense challenge of beating the success record on the Grande Boucle, which he currently co-holds with the biggest runner of all time, the Belgian Eddy Merckx.
“I built my career around the Tour de France and here I am at a point where I can have the record all by myself. People only think of another victory on the Tour. Me, it’s not a victory that I aim for, but two, three or more”, insists the Briton, who had caused a sensation in 2021 when he had won four successes and the green jersey.
“I feel respected”
Under pressure in these previous teams, he appreciates finding a caring atmosphere at Astana with Vinokourov, delighted to welcome the “greatest sprinter of all time”.
Cavendish will be a train to his measure with in particular the Dutch sprinter Cees Bol. Above all, this great emotional feels considered at its fair value in the Kazakh team, involved in the past with doping cases like his boss, who tested positive for blood transfusion during the 2007 Tour.
“It’s the first time I can set myself a goal and prepare for it rather than having to prove myself just to have the right to claim it,” he insists.
After the B&B Hotels fiasco, Vinokourov called him.
“We talked about success but also what would happen if it goes less well. He just said to me: it doesn’t matter, if we don’t win, we don’t win, but we’ll try. It’s been a very long time that someone hadn’t spoken to me like that.”
“Here, I feel respected for what I have accomplished, what I still have to accomplish and simply as a person”, concludes Cavendish on the eve of his last great fight.
This article has been published automatically. Sources: ats / afp