050 051 interview

Muzzled

Mark Cavendish’s tenure as Sky’s sprinting star has been a mix of highs and lows as the Manxman played second fiddle to the aspirations of a team hell bent on the GC. So what now for the single-minded 27 year old? Words Sophie Smith Photos Richard Baybutt, Graham Watson, Yuzuru Sunada, Doug Pensinger/Bryn Lennon/Getty Images

av is James Bond, In 2012 was a — three apiece at the Giro d’Italia and Liam Gallagher, champion by title as well as nature. Tour de — and 15 races in total. Benny Hill and Holm was in the Great Britain team That’s three more wins than he achieved “C in the car with coach Rod Ellingworth when last year, although in 2011 he realised same person,” says his friend and former the won gold at the World Road two career goals, winning both the team manager Brian Holm. Race Championships in last at the Tour and the rainbow “Last week he said: ‘Listen Brian, half year. But he and Cavendish have had jersey. In terms of race victories his 15 of the bunch hate me.’ I had to correct little professional contact this season wins made him the most successful him and say: ‘Listen Cav, 90 per cent of having joined different outfits following world champion since in the bunch f***ing hate you.’ the demise of HTC-Highroad. Holm 2006 with the same number. “It’s because he’s so loud, using his went to Omega Pharma-Quick Step and “Every time I pulled on the rainbow elbows, fighting like a mad dog, yelling Cavendish, the first British world jersey it really did mean something to at people. You have to know him. champion since in 1965, me,” Cavendish tells . Team-mates, people around him always moved to his ‘home’ team Sky in a “In times of being quite depressed, love him but he’s always got the feelings three-year deal, which, at the time of demoralised, you can think: ‘I don’t on the outside. print, looked to be coming to a know if I’m going to get through this “He puts a lot of pressure on himself premature end. Omega had expressed race today’. And then you pull the jersey in the races. When he has to win he gets the most interest in the Manxman amid on and you’re like, ‘I’ve got to do this nervous, he’s verbal, you can’t boss him transfer speculation. proud. It’s been an honour to wear it.’” around in the bunch. But despite personal success along “ was exactly the same. Champion year with the team performance of the year When he quit, Zabel said to me: ‘I didn’t In his reign as world champion at the Tour, which his team-mate make too many friends when I was riding.’” Cavendish won six stages famously won, 052 INTERVIEW Mark Cavendish 053

Cavendish had a trying season. He was we had to stop riding. I’ve had a Clockwise from top: negotiating a contract extension with a bonus rider as opposed to an outright successful year but achieved nowhere Cavendish was below Team Sky, followed Cavendish to the leader at the Tour and for the first time near what I could have so naturally par at Milan-San Remo; British team but the latter lost his chief operated with restrictions on what he I’m frustrated.” -Wevelgem is lead-out man in , who does best — winning stages. Cavendish was well known before he still an objective; the went to Rabobank. “Three stage wins is good for a team won the World Championships in Giro saw Cavendish “I joined Sky — for me it was the let alone an individual rider, but it’s my Copenhagen, but that win made him a back to his best best team in the world, it had the best lowest count at the Tour, where I was in star. Signing with the Wasserman Media management, the best riders, the best the best form of my life,” Cavendish says. Group provided structure as did the structure to get the most out of yourself. “I’d done the best preparation up to recruitment of former national I was able to get the most out of myself it, I was with a strong team and I was team-mate and friend , who up until I raced,” Cavendish says. wearing the yet I got my effectively became a personal assistant. The 27 year old is familiar with many lowest total. “He was flat-out busy starting back of the riders and staff at Sky, having “We won the yellow jersey and it was training and also getting ready for the come through the a big thing. It can easily be something Academy with many of his team-mates. you can sit there and go professionally, “Three stage wins is good for a team One of them, , was an ‘Oh, it’s good to win’. But really, as a able pilot in Copenhagen but had a British rider in a British team and all let alone an individual, but it’s my limited road programme this season — that, plus Brad is like my big brother; lowest count at the T he notably skipped the Tour — due to to go and help him win yellow, after our. I’d done the his track commitments at the Olympics. everything we’ve been through with best preparation, I was with the best “Geraint was preparing for the track the Worlds is a big thing in my career. so I didn’t race with him and then I “We won six stages and the yellow team and I was in the rainbow jersey” didn’t really gel with the others. Not jersey and second [in ], but personally, we all really got on, but on I think easily, without detriment to the BBC Sports Personality of the Year the bike, we kind of didn’t. I was always yellow jersey, we could have won 10 [which he won]. There was an awful lot in a more vulnerable position. Whereas stages and the yellow jersey. So with my of publicity for that. He was doing a lot Brad went to every race with the same mentality, I’m like, ‘how can we be of photoshoots with Head & Shoulders, team I went with a different team to happy with six if we could have quite Nike, Oakley and then all the Sky stuff,” every race,” Cavendish says. easily won 10?’” Hayles says. Cavendish believes that contributed As illustrations Cavendish offers “I was actually quite surprised how to the number of crashes he had this stage 13 to Cap d’Agde that featured the busy he was away from the bike. A lot of year from his first race of the season, the category-three Mont Saint Clair some the time he didn’t know what the Tour of in February, onwards. 23 kilometres from the flat finish, as well photoshoot was for, he was that busy.” “When I was at HTC we were as the rolling 15th stage to Pau, where Cavendish was named as the 22nd always leading it out so everyone was Sky decided not to bring back the break most marketable athlete in the 2012 on my wheel. Here I was always fighting after a manic start. Sportspro 50 list. and hit the deck first in Qatar and I’ve The sprinter’s year as world crashed more times since then,” he says. Losing to win champion, with a new team, coincided “Every crash I’ve had this year has been “I think I could have won two more and with the birth of his first child as well as in a because I’ve been in a more Froomey could have won two more,” the road race vulnerable situation.” he continues. which, along with Milan-San Remo and Brian Holm adds that fearlessness “To Cap d’Agde, where [André] success, was a major also plays a part. “It’s because he wants Greipel won, with HTC I would’ve got season objective. to win and he does move,” says the over that climb because the team would “This year was always going to be Dane. “Whether riders admit this to have been around me. If we had got the hardest for him with the change of themselves or not is hard to tell but in back on I would have won that. But that team, the Olympics so close to the Tour each bunch sprint they’re basically was a stage where doing that would be and the pressure that was there, but also risking their life. For someone like Mark, detrimental to the yellow jersey so it’s becoming a father,” Hayles says. he’s got enormous pressure on him, like worth losing that stage to win the yellow Zabel did in the past. jersey. I didn’t even say I want to go for it New train “They’re very intense, good sprinters, because I would have needed a whole Part of the challenge was learning to because it’s like boxers getting into the team. But then the likes of Pau, that’s no work with a new lead-out train. His ring. There’s a lot of adrenaline going detriment to the yellow jersey and yet confidant, , who is around in the body even after the 054 INTERVIEW Mark Cavendish 055

“Geraint was preparing for the track so I didn’t race with him and then I didn’t really gel with the others. Not personally, we all really got on, but on the bike, we kind of didn’t” 056 INTERVIEW Mark Cavendish 057

stage, especially after a bunch sprint. better than any other circuit has in When he’s coming through, Cav is like “I was sold the idea of going for yellow recent history. There was no way they Arnold Schwarzenegger, he’s bloody and green and I believed. That’s were going to put anything else on a scary. He’s turning from the funny guy, level par with that yellow jersey. Cav Benny Hill, into Schwarzenegger, maybe why I said I wouldn’t be at Sky if wanted two riders to be with him but James Bond. It takes one hour to get they weren’t going to budge an inch him to cool down afterwards. I didn’t think it was possible to get with that.” “They have to be like that. If they weren’t, they wouldn’t be good sprinters. yellow and green” Overcoming difficulty Like you say in cycling, the bad guys are Ask Cavendish about a race and he’ll winning the races and nice guys have a team, sacrifices would have to be made talk about himself; ask his rivals and coffee in the bar.” at the Tour. The reality of the situation some will mention the difficulty in hit the defending green jersey champion overcoming him before speaking about The greatest Cavendish two weeks before the Liège their own chances. Cavendish names an accolade from Grand Départ. “Brian said to me, ‘I’ve never met French sports newspaper L’Equipe “I was sold the idea of going for someone who, unless anything recognising him as the greatest sprinter yellow and green and I believed. That’s abnormal happens, they don’t try to win, in Tour de France history as his why I said the whole year I wouldn’t be they choose to win. You choose,’” season’s highlight. at Sky if I didn’t think it was possible to Cavendish says. “It’s one of the biggest things in my get yellow and green,” Cavendish says. “Everything is a calculation. I know career, that,” he says. “Think out of all “When they called me about the what I can do and I know what I’m the great names, out of all the great Tour team I had to fight to even get physically capable of. If I haven’t done X, riders that I’ve known about, that I’ve Bernie in. They said it’s out of Bernie Y and Z, I’ll doubt myself. But I know if watched, and I’ve been voted for. It’s not and [Juan Antonio] Flecha to go and I I’ve done X, Y and Z leading up to it and a thing on numbers, it’s a panel of was like, I want both of them. I said, ‘put X, Y and Z in the race that I’ll win. experts like Bernard [Hinault], it this way, without Bernie I may as well “It’s like the Black Eyed Peas — [Christian] Prudhomme, [Patrick] not go to the Tour but why can’t we take they know how to make a melody that Lefévère, [Eddy] Merckx that vote. Bernie and Flecha? They’re the two is going to be catchy, that is going to I’m a big man on respect and that guys that will be best help for me to win do well in the charts. There’s a formula was massive.” stages and they’re both versatile, they to it.” Prudhomme presented Cavendish can help with GC as well.’” Milan-San Remo was Cavendish’s with a trophy at the Tour’s 13th stage The issue, says Hayles, was first major objective of the season but in a low-key exchange rather than communication. a race that didn’t run to formula. He a ceremony. “To be fair, a lot of that talk did come silently deliberates at length before “There was supposed to be [a from Cav but I don’t think at any point in naming that and the Olympics as ceremony] on the Tour podium but the the year did anybody say, ‘Cav, that’s not season lowlights. team didn’t know about it and I missed going to happen. It’s all about the yellow.’ “Unfortunately he either wins a bike it. I ended up getting presented with it “I think the problem is there is too race or he loses a bike race. There’s behind the back of the podium when the much history. Cav has obviously been often been more spoken about Cav podium was getting taken down part of that set-up based on the back of losing the race than there has about because I was late. the British Cycling Academy. I think in the person who actually won it,” “I had a bit of a cry that night. I was some of their eyes he is still that cheeky Hayles says. actually on my bed just crying. I spoke young lad from the who Cavendish suffered from a virus on with Rod in the morning and he said he came on the Academy. For some reason arrival at the , which had a didn’t know about it. That evening Dave I don’t think that has changed, which residual effect on his ‘La Primavera’ Brailsford came to me and said ‘we want from the outside sounds bizarre because campaign in where the rainbow to do a celebration for this thing you got’ he’s the best sprinter in the world. bands are especially revered. and I was like, ‘you don’t, you’re just “There’s still a certain element of “There was one race where I think, saying that because Rod’s told you.’ I that, coupled with the fact they in terms of meeting goals, he fell a long said, ‘don’t worry, the moment’s passed.’” obviously had the chance and pushed as way short and that was Milan-San Remo,” Left: Cavendish hard as they could for the yellow jersey Ellingworth says. Making sacrifices believes Sky put all with Brad and rightly so. At the Tour this “When you look back it was very It was known from the outset that with of their resources year there was a certain amount of luck obvious why and it certainly wasn’t from Cavendish and Wiggins on the same behind Wiggins in terms of the course suiting Brad lack of commitment from him or the 058 INTERVIEW Mark Cavendish

team, it was just circumstance. He got race, for which he was a gold Above: Team GB brim “That was exciting in terms of over it, he looked fine, but actually it was medal favourite. with confidence on working with Mark. Over all the years a longer-term virus and it hit him again “So much was done towards the the Olympic start line that was possibly the best thing I’ve before Tirreno-Adriatico. He had nine rainbow that we didn’t actually have to done and we didn’t win the race, which days off his bike before Tirreno and that do that much more for the Olympics,” was quite ironic. It made us realise how was a period where we were going to be Cavendish says. good the World doing work and we couldn’t. You miss “We’d done the work “It made us realise how good the Championships almost a couple of weeks of training and up until last October actually was by not it knocks you at that time of year to get the structure in World Championships actually was winning the because you haven’t got of a lot of place and it was a by not winning the Olympics” Olympics.” kilometres in the bag. follow-on.” Great Britain “I think Ghent-Wevelgem was a If communication and support was a could not catch the break that was tactical error on his behalf and on the problem at the Tour, the Olympics was established over nine laps of the decisive team’s and then the only other set goal the exact opposite. Box Hill climb with Cavendish finishing was the Olympics. Even he was pretty “We planned for the final 15 weeks the 250-kilometre race in the bunch. humble about that because his form was up to the Tour,” Ellingworth says. “The only difference was that Mark so good and that was our objective. All “We had a conference call every felt like he could have gone with [Fabian] he could do was be the best he’s ever single week with everybody who was Cancellara [on the last lap]. He kicks been on his bike and for sure he was.” involved in Mark’s preparation: his himself a little bit that he didn’t go but manager, nutritionist, physio, Brailsford we’d agreed to stay together as a unit Three-year plan and me. and race as a unit,” Ellingworth says. Victory at the Worlds last year was “Mark would speak to the whole Where Great Britain took one option the focus of a three-year plan Elling- group, nobody was hiding, there was no to London other nations arrived with worth devised and managed. Project sense of, ‘well, I haven’t done my job this a two-prong attack to cater for a Rainbow Jersey morphed into Project week’. He felt pretty good that this breakaway or bunch sprint finish. London and, as in Copenhagen, group was really behind him. It’s a Ellingworth, like Cavendish, is Cavendish had the full backing of the thing and he’s done it critical of nations that took a sprinter but Great Britain national team for the road with a few riders. did not contribute to the chase. 060 INTERVIEW Mark Cavendish

“If other teams had raced to actually himself go a little bit over the eight or win it, it would have been a different “Cav — he’s a born winner. nine days.” story,” Ellingworth says. He’s not a born ” Cavendish ended his tenure as world “Mark had actually punctured a champion with three stage wins at the kilometre-and-a-half before the finish. where he and his agent He finished with his front wheel sort of all-time list, and with what Holm met with Brailsford to discuss his future three-quarters flat. Even if it had come estimates to be another four to five with Sky. together, he wouldn’t have won the race. seasons at the top, he has time to chip His situation this season is perhaps When you think about all the teams, away. Ghent-Wevelgem remains evidence of the difficulty, maybe even they take sprinters and they don’t want unfinished business, and Cavendish impossibility, of supporting two winners to race if Mark’s there, well, anything would love to win Milan-San Remo at the Tour. can happen and you’ve got to give them again. Further down the track “Cav — he’s a born winner. He’s not the opportunity. Cavendish has even toyed with the idea a born domestique,” Holm says. “Why take a sprinter if you’re not of running his own team. “He would fit into almost any team going to work for a sprinter? That’s “Whether he is with us or another that doesn’t have a GC rider. When you my point.” team I’m not fussed,” says Ellingworth. have a winner like him everybody gets Surpassing Merckx’s all-time Tour “From a coach’s point of view from better because he creates a great team de France stage win record of 34 is a Team Sky or a coach’s point of view from spirit. He’s very motivating for everybody, goal for Cavendish. British Cycling, we’ve already started he’s talking non-stop on the radio.” His 23rd stage victory at the talking about next season and what we What does he say? Tour this year, which was his fourth will do differently during the winter. “’Keep it together, keep it together,’” consecutive win on the Champs- “The only thing he would change is replies Holm. “’I’m going to win, I’m Elysées, saw him move to fourth on the the period over Christmas. He let going to win. I promise.’”