Mark Cavendish, a cyclist Americans should love
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If you like cycling, and even if you’re not sure you do, you’d like Mark Cavendish. He rides for the California-based Columbia-Highroad team. He’s built like a square, he’s brash but not a braggart, from a place called the Isle of Man, and try cycling your way off that place. He says so matter of factly that he is the fastest man in cycling, then goes out and proves is. Possibly the coolest moment of the Amgen Tour of California was when Cavendish blew past another not-so-shy sprinting specialist, Tom Boonen. Cavendish almost raised his hands in victory too quickly, but that kind of cocky confidence is really charming.
Cavendish has also promised to win at least one stage in every race he enters this year. He kept up that boast Wednesday at a race in Belgium. Seeing the photo of Cavendish crossing another finish line with his arms raised caused me to go back and review an interview he gave during the Tour of California.
“I have a reputation for being cocky, arrogant and brash, but I think I’m just a realist,” said Cavendish on the day he beat Boonen in California. “In sheer speed, over the last 200 meters, I think it’s unrivaled. It’s not bragging if you win.’
Cavendish had given an interview two days before the race had begun. About sharing details of his childhood on a sparsely populated island somewhere between England and Ireland, Cavendish became suddenly shy. He is doing an autobiography he said and he didn’t want to hurt book sales by blabbing to a few American journalists in a Sacramento hotel. but that’s OK. It’s a book I’ll buy.
He did say his grand hope is to, some day, be remembered in cycling history books. ‘I want people to remember my name, and not just because it’s in the glossy magazines,’ he said.’
Certainly, as long as Lance Armstrong’sbroken collarbone continues healing and the American cyclist who has already won the Tour de France seven times is able to continue with his planned program of riding the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France this summer, most of the world’s cycling words will be written about Armstrong, his comeback, his face-off with younger, talented Astana teammate Alberto Contador and maybe even the surging performances of Levi Leipheimer and Dave Zabriskie.
But there will be those days, those non-mountain, long stretches of flatland racing days where all the interest comes together in a furious, dangerous, elbow-hitting, wheel-clashing sprint finish and when you see Cavendish raise those arms while wearing that bright yellow Columbia jersey, you won’t be able to not smile along with him. And let’s keep count. Will he win a stage in every race?
-- Diane Pucin