Critics doubted Mark Cavendish’s form last year leading up to Tour de France. Before the race started, the HTC-Highroad sprinter had only four victories to his name, a far cry from the fifteen he had leading up to the 2009 Tour. He then dispelled the myths of poor condition by going on to win five stages.
This season, Cavendish has again only won four individual races before La Grande Boucle starts on July 2. However, before any predictions could be made this year he said, "I'm lean. I've not had any problems. I came off the Tour of Switzerland in good form and it makes you pretty excited," speaking to the BBC.
The Manx missile has made his intentions clear about the French race. "I am going for the green jersey and I have gone for it the last two years."
In those last two seasons, Cavendish has won more stages than any other sprinter but still failed to secure the green points jersey. It’s believed that this has led the organisers to change the rules of the competition. As opposed to two or three intermediate sprints in previous years, there will only be one during the stage now with the first fifteen riders picking up points, meaning the more stages you win, the better your chances of winning the jersey.
"Before, I didn't have to go for them [intermediate sprints] and really, if you win the stage you minimise your losses anyway,” he said.
"Now I'll have to go for them but still just to minimise my losses. It still won't take away from the fact that I want to win stages. My way to win the green jersey always has been and always will be to win as many stages as possible and just to eliminate my losses on the intermediates.”
The 26 year old’s contract comes to an end with the American team this year. Last week there were reports that he has signed with Britain’s Sky Procycling. Cavendish quickly retaliated on Twitter saying, “I'm committed to HTC-Highroad until the end of this year, and I'm concentrating now on the Tour De France.”
However the statement was certainly not a denial, either, and this consequently increased speculation of a move. If he is to leave HTC-Highroad at the end of the season, it will be interesting to see how he fares in the sprints without his leadout man Mark Renshaw. Cav expressed his respect for the Australian today. "I've got a pretty good race head. I can see spaces, I can make decisions, but there's two people in cycling whose decision I'd take over mine and that's [Mark] Renshaw and [George] Hincapie.
"The mental pressure of being there [at the front of the race] and having to think and concentrate to stay at the front is massive and that takes such a lot of energy away.
"That's the thing about Mark, he just takes so much mental stress off me because all I have to do is concentrate on following him. It just saves so much energy that allows me to go better at the finish.”
Renshaw is still under contract with the team until the end of next year. Unless an expensive buyout is made, it would mean that if Cavendish does indeed leave, then the duo would be separated for at least a year. In the meantime, they’ll be sure to leave a lasting memory of their partnership in this year’s Tour de France.