Netting the sixth Giro stage win of his career, Mark Cavendish this evening underlined the importance of his victory ahead of Fran Ventoso and Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-ISD) on the crowd-thronged streets of Teramo.
“It is massive for me,” he said in the post-race press conference, showing a great deal of contentment with how things turned out. “You could see my disappointment when I didn’t win in Parma [on stage 2]. For me, this is one of my favourite races. It is a race which is very close to my heart, it is where I won my first stage of a Grand Tour. To win here is beautiful.”
Part of his satisfaction is that his team-mates worked so hard to deliver him to the line, and that he could pay them back for that. “It would be easier for the team to concentrate on the general classification, but they didn’t,” he said, referring to the fact that Kanstantsin Sivtsov is currently second overall. “The team concentrated today on winning the sprint. It shows what a great group of guys I have to deliver me to a win in this beautiful race.”
The 159 kilometre stage to Teramo was marked by a long distance breakaway by three riders, namely Yuriy Krivstov (Ag2r La Mondiale), Pierre Cazaux (Euskaltel Euskadi) and Fumi Beppu (Team RadioShack), but despite their best efforts to stay clear, the stage was only ever going to finish up in a big bunch gallop. There are precious few opportunities for sprinters this year and Cavendish’s HTC Highroad team plus the squads of the other fast men worked together to ensure that the peloton arrived together into Teramo and fought it out en masse.
Cavendish said that his team did everything they could, but that an improvised change in tactics had to be made inside the final two minutes. “Coming into the final, I had the whole team there. There were a few teams going for it on the big roads,” he said. “We ended up a bit early – Rasmussen went with two kilometres to go…it is a bit far to have just two guys, so I let the wheel of Renshaw go.
“I then took Petacchi’s wheel with 1500 metres go, I knew I was in the best position. I just had to wait until he went and then come around him. He went with 250 to go, I went with 150 to go and I was able to win.”
Rejects allegations of Etna cheating:
Prior to the start of the stage, rival sprinter Ventoso made the claim that Cavendish had broken the rules on Mount Etna, holding onto a car on the climb in order to scrape inside the time limit. Robbie McEwen (Team RadioShack) and Graeme Brown (Rabobank) both finished outside and were sent home; Ventoso’s inference was that Cavendish should also be out of the race. Had that happened, he would not have had the opportunity to win today.
Cavendish’s victory ahead of the Spaniard had a sweet taste, given that he insisted that he didn’t cheat and had been wrongly accused.
“I can say that my whole career has been the same story…I am always dropped, so if I finish in the time limit, this means ‘I cheat’. I challenge Ventoso to spend one day in the back group with me. He will see then that if I stop to piss, if I stop to change my wheel, if I crash, then I have a commissaire with me every time, I have the television camera with me every time, I have a f***ing ice cream van with me every time, I have a marching band with me…if it is possible for me to cheat, then I am [the magician] David Copperfield. It is always the same story…three or four years ago, that would have made me upset, but now I know it is the same.”
Instead, he said that the reason he made the time cut is by riding flat out to make sure they could stay in the race. “In the group were four guys from my team, [plus] Francesco Chicci and Russell Downing, and we rode like our lives depended on it. People were saying how fast the peloton was going on the descent, but we made up two minutes on the peloton on the descent. We went crazy to get back. We knew it was going to be close…we caught a group, and then the last climb up Etna it was every man for himself.
“Normally a group will stay together – this day, it was everybody just trying to make the time cut. Everybody had to go full gas with what they had to the top of the climb.”
If he didn’t hold onto a car – and thus far, the race organisers have done nothing to suggest this might have been the case, why then would Ventoso make the claim? Cavendish was clear on what he felt is the reason; he said it was most likely envy of what he has achieved.
“In my career, I’ve always had accusations against me,” he said. “It is part and parcel of being at the top…I would say part of it is jealousy.
“If you are at the top…whether you are in cycling, whether you are in any other sport, whether you are in any other aspect of life, if you work in entertainment, if you work in business, if someone is at the top, someone else is going to try to pull them [down]. That’s how it is. I don’t let it bother me…I could easily make some accusations against Ventoso for cheating if I wanted to, but I am not going to do it because I don’t need to do it.”
Cavendish didn’t elaborate on what he was referring to, but it was most likely Ventoso’s previous positive test for furosemide, a banned diuretic.
Says HTC Highroad isn’t as strong as it was for sprints:
Cavendish has another opportunity to take a sprint win this week, with stage 12 to Ravenna appearing to be tailor-made for a gallop. He will be aided once again by his team, but said that the final outcome is not as assured as it had been in the past.
“I am not going to lie…it is not the same team we had in the past for the sprints,” he said. “In terms of heart, in terms of commitment, for sure it is the same team…in terms of commitment, everybody gives 100 percent for the same goal. This is beautiful to see.
“[However] in terms of ability, the strength and the experience of the lead-out train, it is not the same. I think we took it for granted when we won everything…even when I was winning every single sprint I entered, I said ‘okay, not with the team, I can win a lot of races. But with the team, I can win every race.’ I think that shows…with the team we used to have, we won everything.
“Now we win, but not the same as we did. That’s not because of a lack of commitment…everybody commits 100 percent, it is just that those guys who go in front of Renshaw…Hincapie, Boasson Hagen, all these guys…they weren’t getting paid enough, simple as that.”
Cavendish has commented on this in the past, saying that the team needs to find a second sponsor and increase its budget. He argues that he is worth more money than he is getting, and also that the team needs to be able to spend more in order to ensure that it has the strongest possible squad.
In the meantime, he’ll keep trying to win as things are. He can’t wait for the lineup to be strengthened and, besides, he knows that every victory he clocks up makes the sponsor search a little less complicated. If he and the other riders can continue winning, then the chances are higher that another backer can be found.