Off the back of a hugely successful Tour de France Mark Cavendish heads to the Rio Olympics with his tail up and his mind fully focused on the task at hand – bringing back a gold medal.
After missing out at two consecutive Games - in 2008 and 2012 - the Dimension Data rider has one realistic chance of adding an Olympic medal to his palmares before retiring. After months of preparation, combining road and track training, the Games are almost upon him.
At the British Cycling holding camp in Newport, Wales, away from the pressure cooker environment of the Tour de France, Cavendish laid out his current position to a group of selected media, including Cyclingnews.
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“On a mental point of view I’m on a bit of a high from the Tour. Not away in the clouds high and it’s not like I’m going on a piss up for a week after the Tour de France but I know that the work I’ve put in is working. I know the work I’ve put in has been beneficial. What we’ve set out to do this year is played out. It gives you positive feelings for the next goals you have,” Cavendish said, analytical and emotional in the same sentence.
At the start of the season Cavendish’s goals were ambitious to say the least – most notably because the world of road sprinting has become so much more competitive. His targets were a successful Tour de France, an Olympic gold medal and then a world title on the road in Qatar.
This year’s Tour de France was arguably his best ever, with four stage victories and the first yellow jersey of his distinguished career. He now holds the second best tally of 30 Tour de France stage wins, a feat that puts the careers of his sprint rivals such as Marcel Kittel and Andre Greipel into perspective. Kittel has won nine stages at the Tour, Greipel 11.
Analysis of the Tour de France, fast twitch fibres for Rio
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