Mark Cavendish carefully watched the replay of the Scheldeprijs sprint on the big screen before going to the podium area and then climbing on the second step alongside winner Marcel Kittel (Etixx-QuickStep) and Andre Greipel (Lotto Soudal).
He was disappointed to miss out on victory by a quarter of a wheel but was not angry or downbeat. He was happy to back on form and showing he is still one of the best, if not the best, sprinter in the peloton. He also took heart from a strong ride by his Dimension Data teammates and is keen to pay them back by riding in support of Edvald Boasson Hagen at Paris-Roubaix.
“At the end of the day, it’s Kittel. It’s not like I f*cked up, I gave everything, the team gave everything, we gave it everything but he was just better today.” Cavendish said
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“He's got a great lead-out now, and I knew he'd be in the front. I was on his wheel, but in the spray from the road I couldn't see how far to go. I thought, ‘Perfect’, he'd hit it too early, then I saw 150m to go. I was coming, coming but just when I got next to him he went again. I used to be able to do that, but I can't do that anymore.”
Cavendish was well placed throughout the race thanks to support from his teammates. Signs of nervousness in the final laps in Schoten were a clear sign he was keen to fight for victory. The wet conditions made for a tense final 16km lap and Dimension Data even tried to split the peloton when a side wind blew across exposed roads. When that didn’t work, Cavendish used his bike skills to secure Kittel’s wheel before the final turns and stayed there until starting his sprint just as Kittel and Greipel kicked too.
"With my… age, I’d rather have a smaller group sprint. The weather was playing up and getting wetter and windier, so we tried to go with a couple of laps to go. But Kittel wasn’t there, so Etixx didn’t ride,” Cavendish explained.
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