Mark Cavendish needed to accept twenty second within the chaotic opening stage on the UAE Tour on Monday, however he may view the outing as a passing frustration relatively than an pressing trigger for alarm. Each sprinter needs to win at each accessible alternative, in fact, however since becoming a member of Astana Qazaqstan a 12 months in the past, Cavendish has the comfort of understanding that he received’t be in need of possibilities to shine this season.
After years of combating to carve out house for himself at QuickStep, Bahrain and even within the latter a part of his time at Dimension Information, Cavendish is having fun with the relative luxurious of a clearly outlined racing schedule and a assured slot on the Tour de France.
For coach Vasilis Anastopoulos, who rejoined Cavendish’s entourage forward of the brand new season, therein lies the good distinction between life at Astana and at QuickStep.
“He’s extra relaxed, he doesn’t should combat for his place anymore,” Anastopoulos advised Cyclingnews after Cavendish’s stint on the Tour Colombia earlier this month. “He’s already recognized his programme for this 12 months since September, the programme he has to comply with all the best way till the Tour de France.
“We’ve already deliberate all of the coaching camps, all of the altitude camps. The whole lot is deliberate, and he’s assured within the work we’re doing. He doesn’t should combat for his place, whereas in Quickstep he all the time needed to show himself and he wasn’t certain that he was going to do some races. Now, it’s extra tranquillo and it’s additionally higher for me to plan and do my job.”
That planning started shortly after Cavendish walked again his preliminary intention to retirement final summer season, with Anastopoulos sketching out the concept of bringing the Manxman and a small group together with Michael Mørkøv and Cees Bol to Colombia for a January coaching camp.
The concept had taken root even earlier than the Tour Colombia’s return to the calendar was confirmed. When the occasion was formally introduced in midwinter, Anastopoulos figured they could as effectively prolong their keep within the Andes and compete. In that gentle, Cavendish’s victory in Zipaquirá on stage 4 was one thing of an add-on to the fundamental altitude coaching bundle.
“The most important mission for us was not the Tour Colombia, it was to organize the season,” Anastopoulos mentioned. “I simply needed to go and do an altitude camp with the blokes, away from the distractions and the lengthy climbs in Europe, so away from Teide or Sierra Nevada.
“To me, Colombia was the perfect vacation spot. That’s why this altitude camp was already organised in August or September earlier than the race was introduced. The Tour Colombia was simply an additional bonus.”
All advised, Cavendish, Alexey Lutsenko et al spent the bones of a month in Colombia, beginning with per week in Rionegro close to Medellín as an introduction to coaching at altitude, earlier than transferring above 2,500m after they relocated to the division of Boyacá for the fortnight previous to the race.
“Logistically, it wasn’t simple to organise coaching as a result of daily I needed to do two teams, one with the sprinters and one other with the climbers and classics guys, however we had quite a lot of assist from the native police and the race organisation,” Anastopoulos mentioned. “Ultimately, we put the items of the puzzle collectively for everyone.”
Altitude coaching is hardly de rigueur for sprinters and the expertise was a relative novelty for Cavendish, however for Anastopoulos, the concept was to work on constructing his rider’s cardio capability with a specific eye to the demanding opening to this 12 months’s Tour de France. The 38-year-old is because of undertake one other stint at altitude in Sierra Nevada in late Might and early June.
“It was simply to place the inspiration of the season,” mentioned Anastopoulos. “You must watch out at altitude. The vast majority of work carried out was low depth, however in fact, there have been occasions after we needed to do some excessive depth as a result of we needed to do some sprints as effectively.”
Greece, Hungary and Switzerland
After driving the UAE Tour this week, Cavendish will transfer on to Italy in March to experience Tirreno-Adriatico and Milano-Torino, earlier than lining out on the Basic Brugge-De Panne and Scheldeprijs in April.
The one downtime constructed into his schedule comes after these Belgian races, earlier than Cavendish begins his ultimate Tour build-up in earnest with a two-week camp in Anastopoulos’ native Greece.
“It is a custom now, we already did it in 2021 and 2022,” Anastopoulos mentioned. “He loves it over there, he spends quite a lot of time with my household. We’re simply going to do our issues and we’ll use the monitor in Athens to do some dash work too.”
From Greece, Cavendish will journey onwards to line out on the Tour of Hungary in Might, earlier than returning to altitude in Sierra Nevada.
“After that, we’ve to decide on between the Tour de Suisse and ZLM Tour, however it’s in all probability going to be Tour de Suisse,” Anastopoulos mentioned. “Then there’s ten days left for some particular dash work earlier than the Tour.”
July, finally, is what it’s all about. Similar because it ever was. And whereas the street there’s extra simple than it was in his QuickStep days, the coach maintains the rider himself is basically unchanged.
“He’s nonetheless the identical Mark, the identical man, with the identical willpower and professionalism. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t nonetheless be driving at 39. That’s laborious. However he’s nonetheless received it.”
