Setting wearing the Maglia Rosa and sprint wins as his goals for the race, British rider Mark Cavendish has admitted that he’s not in his top shape yet. The HTC Highroad rider has notched up just two wins this year, due partly to crashes at important points in races, and said it
“To be fair, I’m not in top condition,” he told SBS. “I’m in good condition, but I’m not obviously at the condition I’d be at the Tour de France. It’s not possible to hold it from now until then. I’m still building but it kind of plays in my favour because you don’t have to be in the same condition as they’re just different races.
“The Giro is either f**king hard or you’ve got to sprint. There’s no stages where it’s like, ‘oh, maybe,’ you know if you can do it or not. You’re always going to suffer in the climbs anyway and then when it’s a sprint you sprint, whereas at the Tour you’ve got to be able to climb… My form is good but obviously not Tour de France good.”
Cavendish took the pink jersey two years ago in the opening time trial and, having missed the Italian race last season due to his participation in the Tour of California, wants to top the Giro GC again. Should the team win the test, it has the chance to put Italian TT champion Marco Pinotti in the Maglia Rosa but, like in 2009, Cavendish appears to believe it should be him who crosses the line first.
“We’ll go all out for it and hopefully get the jersey again. For me, that’s the first objective and we’ll see how the sprint goes,” he said.
Cavendish conceded that the team is perhaps not as strong as in other years, but he believes that cooperation together can make the difference. He has pinpointed five stages that he believes will end in sprints, and will seek to make the most of those.
Looking at his results this season compared to 2009, he had done considerably better then before heading to the Giro. He won two stages in the Tour of Qatar, two in the Tour of California, one in Tirreno-Adriatico, Milan-Sanremo and two in the Driedaagse De Panne. This time, his tally is two: stage six of the Tour of Oman, and Scheldeprijs.
For the past two seasons, he has won less early on, but says that he is targeting the world championships at the end of the year and is trying to ensure that his form lasts until then. Because of that, he wants to hit peak form in the Tour, then build back up again for the autumn. If he’s not dominant in the Giro, he doesn’t see reason to panic.