Cav Set to Put Early 2010 Nightmare Behind Him

A mouth infection and resulting surgery that reduced Mark Cavendish to “crying like a baby” is the reason why the Tour de France multiple stage winner believes this is the year when he can claim both the Tour’s coveted green jersey and mount a serious attack on the world road championships.

Cavendish, who won four sprint stages in 2008, and a staggering six last year only to lose out somewhat controversially to Norway’s Thor Hushovd by ten points in the race for the green jersey, was not only in bed for three weeks in January with the infection, but lost valuable training time and muscle in the process.

As a result his 2010 to date has been slow, failing to defend his Milan-San Remo title he won last year, and managing just one stage win so far in Catalonia. It has prompted questions over Cavendish’s credentials to take the next step this year but the 24-year-old from the Isle of Man believes the delay and enforced lay-off will result in him lasting the pace all year.

“As horrible as the infection was it’s a blessing in disguise because last year, after the Tour, I was shattered whereas this time I know I’m going to maintain fitness right the way through to the world road championships in Australia at the end of September,” he insists. Last year I saw winning the green jersey as a bonus. This year not winning it will be a failure.

“This time last year I’d got four flat wins to my name and now, because I’ve been delayed and also raced more in the mountains, I’ve only won once so far, but this has prompted cycling to ask what’s wrong with me? One headline said: “Cavendish achieves first win in eight months.”

“I guess I’m a victim of my own success. By all accounts I’m the second most covered road cyclist in the world’s media behind Lance Armstrong and that means attention’s on me all the time. But it makes me laugh. People are commenting that I’ve only won a stage in Catalonia so far, when many of the cyclists on the road never win anything in 15 years.”

Cavendish’s mouth is often in overdrive when you get him onto cycling and the Tour, but at one stage its saliva glands were so inflamed they were, according to the former double world Madison champion, “the size of grapes.” The doctor in Majorca, where Cavendish was supposed to be training with his HTC-Colombia teammates, had never seen a mouth in a worse state than Cavendish’s.

“I guess it was my fault,” he admits, now sporting a pair of braces on his upper and lower teeth. “I’d wanted to have my bottom teeth sorted out since I was 16 years old. They were so jumbled up and overcrowded that I’ve barely smiled for eight years, I’ve been that self-conscious about them.

“I had them done in Paraguay by the best friend of my girlfriend’s mother but the next day, despite having an open wound, I went for a 150km, five-hour cycle ride. A couple of days later, back in Majorca, I experienced the most incredible pain ever. It was so bad I was banging my head against the wall. I hate taking tablets but I knocked back 2 grammes of pain-killers.

“The doctor cut open the inflamed wound and yellow stuff poured out but the next day my saliva glands had grown to the size of grapes which pushed my tongue so far up that I was struggling to breathe. My team doctor and the dental nurse held me down in the chair and while the dentist went to work I started crying like a baby, not just during but for ten minutes afterwards as well. The doctor told me he’d never seen a mouth in a worse state than mine. I wasn’t allowed near any of my teammates so while they trained and ate together, I was stuck in my room.”

It was not the best start of a year made considerably worse last week with the news that his younger brother, Andrew, was sentenced to six years in prison on the Isle of Man after being caught importing and possessing cannabis and cocaine with the intent to supply, a subject Cavendish is understandably not keen to discuss.

Despite this physically and emotionally painful start to the year, and the resulting loss of training time, Cavendish is now more confident than ever that he will win the green jersey, and be the first British cyclist to win a jersey since Robert Millar won the polka dot King of the Mountains in finishing fourth in 1984.

“I know I can win the green jersey because, in my eyes, I already won it last year,” he explains. “Don’t forget, the only reason why I didn’t was because Hushovd complained that I drove him into the barriers at the end of the 14th stage which, even though the commissaire found me guilty, was completely wrong, and everyone inside cycling knows the situation and sees me as the guy who really won the jersey. Instead it cost me 14 points and I lost the jersey by ten. The thing was, Thor went inside me and the barriers which you’re not allowed to do. I don’t need to out-tactic him because I can beat him with just one leg. It was a disgraceful decision and the word I would describe the commissaire is a word you cannot print.

“Although there are probably only six stages I can win this time, as opposed to a possible nine last year, such is the difference in the course, I am very confident of taking the green jersey and challenging for the worlds. Next year I’ll win the worlds and in 2012 I’ll be very confident about winning the Olympic gold medal for the men’s road race, too, especially as its in London.”

Cavendish does not quite share the same degree of confidence for his old friend Bradley Wiggins, the three-time Olympic gold medallist who amazed the world of road racing by finishing fourth in last year’s Tour.
“Brad can do almost anything he sets out to achieve, and I believe he will make the podium this year,” Cavendish explains. “But he’s not got much chance for a number of years because (Spain’s) Alberto Contador is so good that I see him not only defending his yellow jersey this year, but winning the Tour for the next two, three and maybe four years to come as well.”�

As for Cavendish, he hopes to be giggling like a baby, and not crying like one, as he rides down the Champs Elysees on July 25th resplendent in the green jersey after a couple of months he would like to forget. Don’t bet against it.