Mark Cavendish was upbeat and happy after ending his road racing season with a tenth and final victory on the last stage of the Abu Dhabi Tour. He will ride the London Six this week and then the Gent Six, both with Bradley Wiggins, before he can finally enjoy a vacation but Cavendish revealed he was able to produce his rare double-kick sprint on the Yas Marina motor racing circuit and so win at speed ahead of Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek-Segafredo) and Elia Viviani (Team Sky).
"I'm very happy to end the season with a win, especially in such a tremendous setting, as it was getting in the dark on Yas Marina circuit. It's a special way to close out the Abu Dhabi Tour and to close out the whole season," Cavendish said before going on to recall every detail of the sprint.
"Everyone was motivated even though it was fast in the finale. But my Dimension Data teammates did a tremendous job. They controlled the break well, even if I thought we'd have more support from the other sprint teams. But Bernie (Eisel) went with 1.5km to go and then Mark Renshaw. Was cool and calming in the finale. A Giant rider, I think it was Koen de Kort, came by and it as easier to let him and it give me more breathing for the sprint. He couldn't hold Mark's wheel, so I did a track move, ran up on him to get some extra speed for the sprint. Winning also meant I kept the green points jersey too."
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In a moment of reflection, Cavendish hinted at some of the difficulties he has overcome to target major goals on the road and the track in 2016.
"I'm happy with it, I had big targets this year, I achieved them or came very close. Ideally I'd like to win everything I do, that's my nature, but I did my best this year. Team Dimension Data was brilliant this year too. We had something like 40 this year, that's big for our first year in the WorldTour," he said.
"If you look at the percent of win conversion it's pretty big, i ride 90 days and win 15, it's one and six, but if I race 60 and win 10, it's still one in six. I didn't race that much this year but I'm still happy with how it's gone. And to think: second in the worlds and seconds in the Olympics is not that bad."
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