A Day with Mark Cavendish at the Tour de France

Mark Cavendish is woken by an unexpected knock on his door at an unexpected time. It is 7.03 a.m at the Aeroport Hotel, Montpellier the morning after one of the greatest stage wins witnessed in the Tour de France for a very long time, and an apologetic Helga Riepenhof, the team doctor for Columbia HTC, is there with doping control testers.

“That’s an hour and a quarter before I should have got up,” says the current holder of the coveted green jersey for the best sprinter in the 180-strong Tour field. “But it’s a price we have to pay, and I’m happy to pay for it.”

Sportsvibe have been invited along for the day to witness the most exciting new talent in world road racing and his team at work during the most prestigious cycle race of the year. The night before Cavendish won his second, successive stage after a sprint finish by all nine cyclists making up the Columbia HTC team engineered a breathtaking win described by teammate George Hincapie as the “greatest” he’d ever witnessed, which is saying something from a man who was alongside Lance Armstrong for all of the American’s seven Tour wins.

That made it six stage wins in two years in the best race in the world, and few predict anything less than a glittering career ahead for the 24-year-old, with the strong possibility that Cavendish can cling on to his current green jersey all the way up to the Champs Elysses finish on July 26th.

Fourteen hours after winning stage three, however, Cavendish and his eight other teammates were providing blood and urine samples to independent testers they pay for out of their own pockets, connected to the world governing body, the UCI, but additional to the random testers the UCI already provide.

“I was tested 64 times last year, and I reckon I’ve already chalked up over 30 times this year so far,” he tells you, with a grin. “It’s not particularly nice, but it’s our way of showing our commitment to prove that we, and hopefully much of the sport, are clean.”

It is an issue taken up by team owner Bob Stapleton, the American who made his fortune out of telecommunications, and who gutted the former disgraced T Mobile team to transform them into the popular and increasingly high-profile Team Columbia HTC.

“All the riders who ride for me know the set of rules I set down,” Stapleton says, as he sits in the team coach that has nine personalised seats opposite each other for the riders. “If I even sensed someone was doing something he’d be out on his ass quicker than a Cav sprint. I’d sue him and I’d probably disband the team instantly and walk away from the sport.

“That’s how strongly I feel about it. I do believe it’s getting a lot better. In 2006 there were around 300 dope tests undergone a year. Now we’re up to 10,000 a year. I’m not saying cheats will be totally eradicated because I don’t think that will ever be the case in many sports, but at least we’re creating a more level playing field and with the technology we have these days, both in terms of the bikes and the human body, we’re proving that stages and races (Cavendish has already won the Milan- San Remo this year) can be won fairly and cleanly.”

Cavendish is about to ride the 39kms time trial course with his teammates, a twisty, dusty and at times pothole-ridden track that will test every single rider that afternoon.

“I’m so high on that kid,” Stapleton adds as he sees his protégé. “He has his critics but I wouldn’t change a thing about him. His attention to detail is second to none, and he balances self-confidence with self-awareness.

“Cav is already the biggest name in the sport apart from Lance. He’s much bigger than, say, your Chris Hoy. He’s a rock star in most of Europe, and in the States. Cav will soon outgrow Britain, that’s for sure.”

We follow the nine riders on the course during morning training. At one stage Cavendish is shouting expletives at the mechanics in the car because of brake problems.

“That’s Cav,” responds Allan Peiper, the Australian Director Sportif, who raced alongside teammate Stephen Roche in the Tour during the mid-1980’s. “He can get a little stressed but that’s because he’s a perfectionist. Cav’s a one-off, the backbone of the team and possesses as much talent as anyone I’ve ever seen in the Tour. He’s also the perfect team player. We all might get grief from him, but we’re the first ones he thanks as well.”

It is a view shared by Erik Zabel, the winner of six, successive Tour green jerseys, the man they called “Mr Milan-San Remo” and arguably the greatest sprinter in the history of the race. “Mark’s the most outstanding talent I’ve ever seen,” reports the German who is mentoring the British sprinter and his teammates. “He will become the greatest sprinter of all time, and a legend.”

Lunch back at the hotel is hoovered up like a chimps tea party by a group of athletes who consume a staggering 10,000 calories in a day, but who possess less than 5% body fat. “That’s what happens when you ride for seven hours a day,” Cavendish explains, before they head down to the start of the time trial for an audience with Hollywood film star, Ben Stiller, who had been following the Tour and, in particular, Armstrong and Cavendish for the last two days.

“I’m in total awe of these guys,” says Stiller, a genuine cycling fan, who shook every Columbia rider by the hand before leaping into a car to follow the team close up. Later he would present the yellow jersey to Fabian Cancellara, and the green jersey to a smiling Cavendish at the finish podium.

Then it gets deadly serious. Cavendish disappears into his own world as he warms up on a stationary bike before the Columbia time slot, sweat cascading from his brow in late afternoon temperatures of 32 degrees Celsius. The team head off and, for the next 39 kms and 47 minutes, pound the roads encircling Montpellier before coming home in 5th place, more than enough for Cavendish to maintain the green jersey, but a reflection of the enormous effort put in by the team the day before.

“I’ve got to be happy, haven’t I?” is Cavendish’s reaction as he sits in the team bus heading back to the hotel before preparing for stages 5 and 6, the last chance to score points for a while as the tour then heads for the mountains. In stage 6 Norway’s Thor Hushovd, the 2005 green jersey winner, would win and draw within a point of the British star, but Cavendish still held the advantage and was beaming in Montpellier 48 hours’ earlier.

“I’ve already won two more stages, I’ve never worn the green jersey before in my life, and I’d love to be wearing it all the way to Paris. I’m even looking forward to the mountains this year. I know I’m going to be fine.”

By Paris Lance Armstrong may end up being the bigger international story. “It wouldn’t surprise me if Lance wins,” says Cavendish, who has become a good friend of the American superstar. “Nothing surprises me about that man.”

But Cavendish has already made his mark, and if he can become the first British rider to claim an end of tour jersey since Robert Millar’s 1984 polka dot, his status in world cycling will continue its staggering rise.