Mark Cavendish may have devoted a sizeable portion of his winter to training on the track in Manchester as part of his bid to earn selection for the Rio 2016 Olympics, but the Manxman has also cited the yellow jersey at the Tour de France as a target in his first season with Team Dimension Data.
“I think I’d like to wear the yellow jersey in the Tour de France. It’s the only Grand Tour leader’s jersey I haven’t worn yet, it starts with a sprint again this year,” Cavendish said in a press conference in Manchester on Tuesday, adding: “I’d like to compete – I’d like to win – at the Olympic Games. And there’s the World Road Champs at the end of the year as well, so it’s a pretty full-on year.
“But I’ve done it before, in 2011, when I won the green jersey and the World Championships, so I think I can do it again, and I’m in a good environment to do it.”
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Famously, Cavendish was the only member of the British track team not to win a medal at the Beijing Olympics, missing out in the Madison, where he was partnered by Bradley Wiggins, a memory he aims to excise in Rio.
Eight years on, the world of track cycling has changed substantially, however. With the Madison no longer on the Olympic programme, Cavendish is bidding to get the nod ahead of Ed Clancy’s as Great Britain’s representative in the Omnium, and might also be called upon as the fifth man in the team pursuit.
“It’s been different, that’s for sure,” Cavendish said of his work on the track in Manchester over the past months. “I haven’t done that kind of focused track training for ten years so it’s different to be back and track’s totally changed since I last really did it, the speeds they go and the gears they’re using. But it’s been complementing my road [training]. It’s not great weather up here but at least I can get out in the hills and that, and then I’ve been going back to the Isle of Man on weekends.”
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