Mark Cavendish is going into the Giro, which begins on Saturday, hoping to add to his 15 career wins on the race to date but unable to shake off the constant speculation around a return to the Tour de France.
And now he says say many stories have appeared about whether he or his QuickStep Alpha Vinyl team mate Fabio Jakobsen will be selected for the Tour he fears the narrative is already out of his control and will cause a rift with the Dutch sprinter.
Cavendish benefitted last year when Sam Bennett was injured. It meant he took the Irishman’s place at the Tour and unexpectedly came back to his best to win four stages and the green jersey.
Those victories saw the British rider draw level with Eddy Merckx in the all-time list of Tour stage winners; both on top of that record table with 34 victories each. And Cavendish’s possible return to the Tour – in the hopes of breaking the record – has been a running story in the media since last year’s race.
Advertisement
He goes into this Giro with Michael Mørkøv as lead-out man. His selection for the Giro appeared to end all hopes of competing in the Tour. However, Mørkøv told a Danish podcast he would only ride 13 stages of the Giro and then abandon to prepare for the Tour.
That plan has only served to breathe new life into the “Cavendish return to the Tour” story as it raises the prospect the British rider could also abandon the race at that point. And now the Manx rider has spoken about his fears the running storyline will eventually turn his friendship with Jakobsen into a rivalry.
Related News
“Fabio and myself have supported each other so much the last (few) years. It’s the last thing I want and the last thing he wants,” Cavendish told Eurosport’s new podcast, The Breakdown.
“The one thing that scares me about all this is for any sort of rivalry to be created between us because we’ve been there for each other. Obviously I only know that from experience from knowing what happens - when the press want to create a rivalry. It's not really that nice.
“Unfortunately, it does start to cause friction. We're not like that. We don't want to be like that. That's why I'm quite reluctant to talk about it because I don't want to fall out with a mate because of something that's out of our control. But what's in my control is not talking about it. So those outside influences (which) are out of my control can't then affect it.”
He also spoke of an unnamed small group of people “expecting me to fail” and said while it was a small cohort “it can be quite close to home”.
“There are some people that want Fabio to go to the Tour so that I’m not going to the Tour - not for Fabio to go and win at the Tour. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a very small demographic. It’s that chip. It’s that small demographic that does the biggest dint in your shoulder,” Cavendish said, before adding the spirit within his team was full-support for each other.
“Whoever goes to the Tour… every one of the other riders in our team will be glued screaming at the TV - you can guarantee that. It’s not right that there’s someone else’s narrative that isn’t that. It pisses me off in a way, and I’d rather not talk about it.”
