Equal first in the all-time Tour de France stage winners' list, Mark Cavendish says he wants to ride the French Grand Tour this year. He added he will be prepared for the race in the event he is called into the QuickStep-Alpha Vinyl team.
The Belgian squad usually only takes one sprinter to the race and this year selection is between Fabio Jakobsen and Cavendish. So far this season Jakobsen has won eight races, including two stages at the Tour de Hongrie last week, won by Irishman Eddie Dunbar.
Cavendish’s 2022 win tally is lower, but the Manxman - who is just about to turn 37 years - has won four races this season, including a stage of the Giro d’Italia, which is ongoing.
Normally, Cavendish’s selection for the Giro would mean a Tour ride had been discounted by the team, or was very unlikely. However, as Julian Alaphilippe faces a race against time to regain his condition for the Tour after his Liège-Bastogne-Liège crash, the Tour line-up may be a little different this year.
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Cavendish has said the media’s focus on whether he or Jakobsen will go to the Tour were “lazy” stories and he feared they would eventually come between him and the Dutch rider, causing a rift.
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However, he has now told La Gazzetta dello Sport he’d like to go to the Tour and will be prepared if he was given the nod. But he said trying to get ahead of Eddy Merckx in the all-time stage winner record books – the two men are tied on 34 stage wins apiece – is not what motivates him.
“The truth is this: if I could only win one more, I’d be happy. If I could win ten more, I’d be happy. The number really, really isn’t a factor for me at all, that’s the truth,” Cavendish said.
“Of course, I’d love to do (the Tour), but I’m a professional and I’ve always been a professional and I do what’s required for my team. You know I’ll always be prepared for it, but it’s not my decision. It’s not something that I think or don’t think about. I just do my job.”
Cavendish’s current contract with QuickStep Alpha Vinyl only runs to the end of this year. Reports that sprinter Tim Merlier has signed for the team for the next two years strongly suggest Cavendish is on his way out of the team, though he says he does not want to stop racing.
"It's not that I want to continue just to bring the bike in the group. I can be competitive for at least another two years. Maybe even more. And I want to finish this Giro, even if it is very hard."
