Mark Cavendish's Tour de France and season in general, has been a difficult experience for 2009's fastest man. He took his first stage win at this year's Tour de France Thursday afternoon in Montargis though, and immediately, the relief and joy was evident. Cavendish was very much a rider in demand following the stage and spoke to a number of different newssources via video. Speaking with Sporza, Cavendish admitted that this win holds a special place in his heart.
"I think this is the most special. I've had some bad luck early on in this Tour. Then we had a couple seconds, but the win eluded us. Yesterday, luck went our way, but I let the guys down. They did a great job and delivered my perfectly, but I didn't finish it off. It would have been easy for them to give up on me, you know? There have been a lot of people that have given up on me. I'm so happy that they didn't. They rode again today, and they rode more than they had to. They delivered me perfect. It's the biggest relief."
Cavendish has been a difficult rider to get a handle on. The dizzying heights and angry lows have combined to give fans and media alike a unique perspective on the 25-year-old. Cavendish has been a rider vilified by many, but his comments on OzCycling and tears following his victory today spoke loudly:
"We've got an incredible sport here. I know why I started this sport: I started the sport because I love it, I train because I love it, and I want to win because I love it. The problem is, when you start winning, all this other stuff comes. It's kind of hard to just keep carrying on saying I'm just going to love it. You know, when there are bad things said about you… Well, ok, maybe sometimes I give people reason sometimes to say bad things. It's kind of hard, people don't realize that I'm only 25. This is only my fourth year as a professional."
In his moment of triumph, Cavendish was able to give a hard look back at the recent hard times, yesterday in particular.
"You kind of stop enjoying it, like yesterday. Finally, when luck was on our side, I let the guys down. I can guarantee now that I'll have 30-40 messages when I get back, but yesterday I had about 10. The people yesterday are the ones that care about you when you're down and want to pick you up when you're down. I've got some great people around me that did that, and I have a great team around me that picked me up last night. It's such a special thing to have people like that."
Cavendish continues on the subject of yesterday's disappointing finish: "I went over it in my head. It's hard to get to sleep when you don't get the win. It really is. You go over it and over it again and again. Fundamentally, I didn't have it yesterday. It was an uphill finish, I remember with a K to go being in my 13, knocking down in my 12, maybe it's too good, I've got my 11, then going into my 11, I remember thinking it's too big, but I should be ok, it flattens off…Petacchi was incredibly strong, and you just have bad days. That's what happens in bike racing. Yesterday was a bad day, I just didn't have it. I'm sorry to the guys, they gave everything. They delivered me perfectly. In bike racing you can't win all the time. It's kind of hard now, it's big news when I don't win, not when I do win."