Mark Cavendish knows he will have to put sentiment to one side as he looks for one last hurrah in his final Tour de France.
The 38-year-old will start his 14th and last Tour in Bilbao on Saturday as he moves into the final months of a glittering career, having announced in May that he will retire at the end of the season.
Cavendish is a former world champion and an Olympic medallist, but for the Manxman nothing compares to the Tour, a race in which his 34 career stage wins stand level with Eddy Merckx for the most of all-time.
The next three weeks will be a long goodbye, but Cavendish knows he cannot allow emotions to get the better of him as he looks to taste victory again.
“I know I’ve still got a job to do,” he said. “I know I’ll regret that, not living in the moment of enjoying things. The whole experience of the Tour de France, you can’t describe it. This race gives you the most incredible emotions.
“Unfortunately you don’t really analyse it and appreciate them until afterwards. It’s the same every year. I know it’s my last one but it’s the same, I’ve got a job to do and I can’t really afford those little moments of sentiment.
“But I can definitely appreciate them later.”
Cavendish moved level with Merckx in 2021 when, just a few short months after fearing his career was over, he capitalised on an unexpected opportunity with what was then the Deceuninck-QuickStep team to turn back the clock with four stage victories.
Cavendish had landed on his feet in securing a short-term deal with Deceuninck, who in Michael Morkov have arguably the best lead-out man in the business. But when he again found himself scrambling for a contract this winter following the sudden collapse of the B&B Hotels squad, the phone call that came was from Astana-Qazaqstan, a team with no sprinting pedigree and no sort of lead-out train in place.
Cavendish’s former team-mate and lead-out man Mark Renshaw has joined in the past week as a lead-out consultant, but the work to develop a train has been an ongoing project for Cavendish and his team-mates since the day he joined.
“With Astana-Qazaqstan being new to sprinting, it doesn’t mean the resources aren’t there to be able to have an incredible lead-out team, it just means it takes time to practice it and learn it,” Cavendish said.
“A lot of races where I haven’t crossed the line first I’ve taken as wins because I’ve seen the growth of the team, and that’s across different guys – even down to climbers and (general classification) guys committing to a bunch sprint. Whether I cross the line (first) or not, if I see the improvements it counts as a win so I’m really happy.”
Whatever happens during July, Cavendish is grateful to have been able to extend his career this far, having given a tearful interview as far back as 2020 when he feared he would be forced out of the sport as he struggled to find a new team.
“I’ve created the most incredible memories, that’s for sure,” he said. “I’m deeply privileged that I could continue my career in the way I did…
“I think the biggest thing you can instil is to never give up. That’s the biggest thing I instil into my kids. They can do what they want and enjoy it but they commit to it if that’s what they want to do. It’s a good way to live life.”
