Mark Cavendish believes there are up to six opportunities for him to take a record-breaking 35th stage win in his final Tour de France.
The 39-year-old, who currently shares the record with Eddy Merckx, will start his 15th Tour on Saturday, with a clear team goal to claim a victory.
On the eve of the race’s Grand Départ in Florence, a relaxed Cavendish addressed the media from his hotel, sat beside his Astana-Qazaqstan team boss, Alexander Vinokourov, who helped convince him to return to the Tour after crashing out on stage eight last year.
This year, the same ambition remains: make history.
“Look, I don't have anything to lose,” Cavendish smiled. “It’s not like playing roulette, where if I don’t win here, I lose 34 Tour stages, do you know what I mean?
“I know it makes a nice story to kind of say that, but it’s as simple as that. I’ve won 34 stages of the Tour de France. I’ve won the most number of stages along with the great Eddy Merckx. I’m just trying for more. Whether that’s one more, two more, 10 more, that doesn’t matter. We have a job to do, which is to try and win and we’ll just take every day like that and approach it like any other bike race.”
Asked how optimistic he is of winning a stage, the former world champion said: “We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t think it was possible. Of course, I don’t think any other team with a sprinter would be here if they didn’t think it was possible to win, and fundamentally that’s our job as cyclists, to try and win.”
The official route counts eight 'flat' stages, the first coming in Turin on day three. "I think, realistically, it's five or six chances," said Cavendish. "It's hard the other times."
Earlier this year, Astana-Qazaqstan recruited legendary lead-out man Michael Mørkøv, and brought in Mark Renshaw, another of Cavendish’s former pilots, as a sports director to head up 'Project 35'.
Together with Mørkøv, Cavendish explained he has been plotting how to win a stage this year. “It’s not very romantic. It’s actually quite clinical,” he said. “We have a process we like to do, Mørkøv and myself. We talked about it this morning, the most ideal scenario for a sprint. Obviously I can’t really give that away.”
Stage win record aside, perhaps the most poignant moment of the press conference came when Cavendish was asked about the legacy he hopes to leave behind in his final Tour. The Brit remained mute for 20 seconds while he considered his answer, looking down at the microphones in front of him, and around the small room, where his wife, Peta, stood at the back.
“I don’t really know,” he then said, breaking the silence with a smile. “I honestly don’t really know. I said before I started my career that if I could ever be in a book of names of riders that meant something, big riders in the history of cycling, if my name was in that book, I’d be happy.
“As I’ve grown up, and obviously had children, and seen how they’re inspired by, not just their cycling heroes, but any sporting heroes and life heroes, it kind of changes your perspective on what a sports person is.
“I understand now that I’m fortunate to be in the position of what I do, and inspiring not just a generation, but a few generations, adults, kids, it doesn’t matter. If they can grow up and see me from afar or know me, know I’ve left an impact on them that helps motivate them, then that’s the most important.”
The Tour de France begins on Saturday in Florence, Italy, with a hilly stage across the Tuscan countryside.
