Viviani practically lives in the Montichiari velodrome, the others come and go. Ganna, for example, is at the Tour of Austria and will join next week. And it is precisely during this almost monastic retreat, which is so reminiscent of the one Cavendish used to prepare for the Tour in Greece, Elijah followed on television victory number Mark's 35th Tour de France. We must give him credit for always having thought so, having believed in it ever since the British announced he would try again. And now that the record has fallen, talking about it with the Veronese is an enlightening journey into sprinters' cycling and perhaps into cycling as a whole.
What did you think when you saw that sprint?
You could see that “Cav” was possessed by the way he moved. He didn't give up an inch, ever since the clash with Gaviria.These are the classic things, they can go well or badly, but he understood that yesterday could be the day. He built it himself, you can't even say they brought him there. Obviously they supported him before, but in the last kilometer he did everything by himself, from passing on the right, then finding the hole on the left and coming out.
How does a sprinter know it's daytime?
Your legs have to support you, but when you watch the sprint again, maybe from above, you understand how he moves and you see that everything went well for him. If you look, when Ackermann left, he was still covered, one on the right and one on the left.He was in a bubble, he was barely even pedaling. But as soon as the door opened for him, he took the lead and I immediately said: "Vince Cav!" Philipsen started too late, but maybe it wouldn't have even been enough. Mark had great legs.
Of the sprinters who arrived in Valloire after the Galibier, he was the least ugly looking…
If one had to judge how the Tour started, probably he would have thought he would have stopped earlier, but managing those moments is a matter of experience. The advantages of an old man. The young man, if he spends a day like that, probably gets paranoid. He starts thinking he doesn't have the legs or that he won't have time to recover. Instead, someone like "Cav" has done a lot of hard work in his career and he hasn't let himself be overcome by fear. The first day he vomited on his bike, so he definitely arrived at the finish line empty. But he had one thing in mind. The first sprint didn't go well, but he won the second. He had a big goal and went beyond that difficult dayI always said he could do it, and Astana deserves credit for believing in him 100 percent. It's not easy to find a team that believes so much in its sprinter.
And the team makes the difference…
The sprinter must have the characteristics to win, but 70 percent is made by the team that believes in you and in the project, I experienced it first handOn the first day, they took the responsibility of dropping five riders, making them seem crazy. They sacrificed Gazzoli, who stopped because he wasn't feeling well, but perhaps went overboard trying to help him. And in the end, they were right, also because of the type of investment they made. They took him Morkov, they took Bol who in his career came close to winning stages at the Tour and they brought him to lead the sprintsSo in my opinion, Project 35 has started and Astana believed in it right to the end, and for that we must give them credit.
It has always been said that the sprinter who leaves Quick Step no longer wins, Cavendish succeeded.
In my opinion, in the end it's a question of believing in it all the way. At Quick Step, sprinters win because the team that takes them believes in it until the end.. The act of building and having the patience to work on every little detail. Cav managed to get across what he thought was importantMorkov, Bol, and Ballerini. Even the trainer he took away from there. Vasilis Anatopoulos they all talk about a number one, Cavendish understood this and managed to make him play an important role in AstanaThey worked on the details, on the bike, on the water bottles and also on the body.
What bodysuit did she have?
A body similar to a time trial one, They put the same kind of precision that I see with Pippo (Ganna, ed.) in the time trialsAnd that means investing and believing in the project. Cavendish is probably one of the biggest opponents… sons of bitches, but when he's your teammate he knows how to make himself lovedYou can see it from all the hugs and messages that reached him after the victory.
What quality does a sprinter lose as he gets older?
I don't believe in explosiveness, even though people talk about it. I see on myself that the peak values are the same as when I was youngerOf course, you have to train differently. The problem, if anything, is that when you were younger you threw yourself into it more, but now you think about it. But seeing Cav at Saint Vulbas, you'd think he was always the same. Maybe when you were young you threw yourself into every race, now a little lessLast year was a so-so year, but he won the Rome stage. This year he didn't win in Switzerland, he won in smaller races. But then he arrived at the Tour and won the stage, because the game is worth the candleWe'll have to see what happens now.
What could happen?
We'll see in the next sprints if he wants to raise the bar higher. or if his blood pressure drops after doing 35. Aside from this record issue, the tension might ease, he might think more and then he would lose the moment. But in terms of power, age does not create big problemsI'm seeing on myself that the values I'm working on are the same as always, not 100 watts less.
Perhaps after a certain age, the real difference is made by the desire to live the life of a rider?
It was clear that his attention was entirely on the Tour. I observed him. In Türkiye he didn't do a single sprint, because it was a transition stage: It's clear that with his coach and the team they had decided to go there and not do the sprints. They threw Siritsa into the fray, instead Mark went there to do a week's work. POI he arrived in Hungary and you could see they were testing the train's mechanisms. One time it didn't work well, the second time it was perfect. Morkov left him at the right spot and Mark won the stageHe started in the lead with Groenewegen right behind him, but he couldn't be overtaken. You could see how, brick by brick, they built this record.
In your pursuit of another Olympic medal in the omnium, do you look back at Cavendish's work towards 35?
Definitely yes. Moving forward in this modern cycling, you have to have big goals in mind and work 200 percent towards them. This helps you in every way to make sacrifices, so a little bit I can relate to the work Mark did to win the Tour. I've been working towards my omnium for months and it's not easy, because you have to going to the races thinking you need something elseSo you're not getting results, which isn't easy. But if you have a clear idea of what needs to be done, then you can do what's needed.
Cavendish is four years older than you. After the Olympics, do you see yourself spending two years rolling up your sleeves on the road to achieve some more great results?
Yes, because Mark has shown that it can be done, as Valverde did, as Nibali did in recent years. It's obvious that to do this you need a plan, because just jumping into the fray doesn't work.To spend two years on the road and get back to harvesting, you need goals. Ultimately I would like to return to the Giro to win a stage and have a goal to achieve.But we'll start thinking about all this the evening after the last race in Paris. For now, I also have my own project, and it will be done on the track.
