It is 11 years since Mark Cavendish first rode the Tour de France, 10 since the first of his 30 stage wins. The Manx sprinter is now 33. A cycling magazine put him on the cover earlier this year and described him as an elder statesman. In late May, he and his wife Peta had their third child, a son named Casper; in the last 12 months he has had a series of horrendous crashes, prompting a French newspaper to run an interview with him headlined “Now, I’m scared”.
A change can be sensed in Cavendish, but a subtle one: at one point he tells me, in passing, “gone are the days when I got angry.” The passion is there still, but it is channelled. He speaks of his sport with more distance. He is more aware of the sacrifices he has to make: he has seen Casper on only six days since he was born, and speaks of months spent at his Italian training base “climbing, climbing, climbing” in order to survive what will be his 12th Tour de France when the race begins on Saturday.
Written by William Fotheringham
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/jul/04/mark-cavendish-interview-tour-de-france-cycling-shoulder-injury under the title “Mark Cavendish: ‘I’m not scared but I think of the consequences more’”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
