HTC-Columbia sprinter Mark Cavendish is heading into this year’s Tour de France with a score to settle in the green jersey department. The Manxman finished second in points during last year’s edition of the race behind Norwegian Thor Hushovd (Cervelo TestTeam), and has an eye on standing atop the final podium in Paris wearing green in 2010.
“I still believe that was the defining moment of the green jersey and I always will do,” Cavendish told reporters on Thursday about being penalized by the race jury last year.
Cavendish was in a tight battle with Hushovd in the points competition when race officials took exception to his tactics during the stage fourteen sprint for thirteenth place. The situation saw him relegated him to 153rd place for blocking the TestTeam rider. The combination of a highly motivated Hushovd, losing points for sprinting on that day, and the 10 point penalty that was imposed were too much for Cavendish to overcome.
“To take the positives from it, it gave me something to aim for this year…that’s a good thing.
“Things will happen like that, you’ve just got to take them on the chin,” he said.
Cavendish will head into this year’s Tour de France after being the center of controversy after a massive crash in the final 50 meters of stage six at the Tour de Suisse. The race jury ruled that the HTC-Columbia rider was at fault for the incident that forced several riders, including Hushovd’s teammate Heinrich Haussler, to abandon the race. Haussler looked on course to win the stage, which, after coming in third in the final sprint stage of the Tour of California, will give his rivals hope for weakness.
“On the bike, off the bike, I have high morals and I’ll always want to win and win in the correct way,” Cavendish said, “I want to win on sporting terms.”
“Mentally I’ve taken a bit of a knocking this year,” he admitted of his season up until now, “but physically I’m in good stead. Everything’s fine. In January I outlined the year, I said I’ve got problems, I’ve had problems. There’s nothing to stress about.
“Like I said in January, I’m not going to do races I can just win, win, win – I’m going to focus on the Tour de France and sacrifice wins,” he continued.
“As I sit here now I can say everything is exactly as planned,” he added confidently.
He will again sit behind the best leadout train in the business – one that has helped him to ten Tour de France stage wins in the past two years. There is a noticeable change prior to the start in Rotterdam on July 3rd; Cavendish is not making any bold statements.
“I’ll just try to win as much as possible,” he said of his goals. “My job is not to set bars and try to better them. My job is to finish off a job that my team and I aim for and that is to win as much as possible.
“Six is a hell of a lot,” he said of his stage tally for 2009. “There are nine possible sprints. I think Eddy [Merckx] has the record with eight,” he said of setting the record for stage wins, “that’s a dream kind of thing to do.”
The first order of business for Cavendish will be to secure his eleventh Tour de France stage win. “If I don’t win a stage I’ve failed. Obviously, I want to win a stage, but you have to be happy with a stage at the Tour de France. Then the green jersey,” he said.
Last year has fueled his hunger for the maillot vert prize, and he now looks at it as a realistic target. “I’d never finished the Tour before last year, so I couldn’t set it as a goal beforehand…but now I can, and I will and the team will and we’re incredibly focused for it.”