Tour 2015: Mark Cavendish | Etixx-Quick Step

FACT FILE

Age: 30
Height: 175cm
Weight: 70kg
WT ranking: NA
Wins in 2015: 13
Career wins: 133
Days racing in 2015: 39
Tour stage wins: 25
KM raced in 2014: 7,243
Form rating: ++++

Mark Cavendish will go to the Tour de France with a point to prove this season. The 30-year-old is a legend of the race as his 25 career stages — and the green jersey at the 2011 edition — attests. However, Marcel Kittel has since 2013 superseded the ‘Manx Missile’ as the man to beat, and Cavendish is determined to show he is not bound for retirement yet.

Cavendish is out of contract with Etixx-Quick Step after this season and his performance at the Tour, and ability to re-establish No.1 status, may impact on contract value, thus providing further motivation. Added to that incentive is his early exit from the race last year following a highspeed crash on day one in Harrogate.

The mercurial fastman has been consistent this season despite suffering a stomach virus after a trip to South Africa with his good friend and former lead-out man, Mark Renshaw, in March. Performances at the Dubai Tour, which he won overall, Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne and a collective seven-stage haul at the Tour of Turkey and Tour of California in May are among his 13 victories this year. But in contrast to rivals, Cavendish hasn’t won at a World Tour race so far this season, which may also niggle at the man who once famously said of André Greipel: “If I wanted to get s**t small wins, I’d race s**t small races”.

 

Key support
Renshaw has served as both a pilot to Cavendish and a road captain this season, the victories a testament to his dual contribution. The pair have worked together famously at the Tour before. “It always make a difference with Renshaw,” said sports director Brian Holm. “It makes a difference in the last 500 metres and also in the way the team organises.”