Mark Cavendish has revealed that refusing to give up, even when going against the odds, was one of the driving forces that made him so successful as a professional rider and sprinter.
As a young rider, Cavendish almost didn't make the cut for a place in the Great Britain team after some coaches were nonplussed about his performance data. But he used his intelligence and determination to forge his success and go on to win 35 stages at the Tour de France.
"I would not be a professional now. But if so many people just look at the scientific part it leaves a gap open for someone who looks tactically minded at things," Cavendish told BBC Radio 5 Live as he looked back over his career.
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"I never neglected my physical training but it is as important to train your mind to read a situation - to look at results, look at tactics of other teams. I did that and others didn't."
Not giving up was also part of Cavendish's success. During his 16-year professional career, Cavendish enjoyed incredible highs and huge success but also terrible lows that included the debilitating Epstein Barr virus and a consequent depression.
His career almost seemed over after 2020 but Patrick Lefevere gave him a chance and he won four stages at the 2021 Tour de France. Astana Qazaqstan subsequently gave him a second lifeline in 2023 but when he crashed out of the Tour de France, he again did not give up and finally won a record-breaking 35th Tour de France stage in 2024.
"Cycling has given me the biggest life lessons," Cavendish said in an interview published in La Gazzetta dello Sport.
"I’m very lucky I’ve won a lot of bike races. But I’ve lost a lot more bike races than I’ve won and the majority of bike riders have won even less.
"In cycling, mathematically your odds of winning are very, very low. And that gives you a particular mentality. It teaches you there’s a lot more hard times than good times. But when good times come, they’re all the sweeter and they make all that hard work worthwhile."
Cavendish always wanted to be a professional rider and always wanted to be a sprinter, who would win stages at the Tour de France. That ambition fueled his determination to never give up, first as a teenager from the Isle of Man who secured a place with the T-Mobile team in late 2006, then through his career and success at Milan-San Remo (2009), the World Championships (2011) and almost annually at the Tour de France.
In recent years, Cavendish kept racing and making the sacrifices to compete in the modern-day peloton thanks to his family.
"I’ve got five children, how can I tell them not to give up if I don’t lead by example?" he told La Gazzetta dello Sport.
"Fundamentally I was just taught not to give up. That’s just not what I do. I’m very lucky that I have good people around me who have supported me when times were bad. But fundamentally it’s just a simple thing – never give up.
"Everything you can control, you control. If you’re not good at something, so be it. and if you’re the best at something so be it. but just do everything and see it through to the end, that’s it."
Cavendish officially retired after winning the recent Tour de France criterium in Singapore.
"I was fortunate to get some extra years out of my career and complete cycling, I guess. The majority of athletes will never get to go out on a fairytale ending," he told the BBC.
"The people I turned pro and raced with have all retired, their sons have also retired. That makes me feel old. There is nobody competitive at this age."
He will be 40 next May but still loves the sport and wants to stay involved in some way, perhaps as a race ambassador or with Astana Qazaqstan when it is sponsored by XdS. Cavendish is currently enjoying retirement before confirming his plans for the future.
Whatever happens, he will always be a cyclist and hopes to continue to inspire other people to love cycling.
"I want everybody who rides a bicycle to enjoy it as much as I did," he said.
"They don’t have to race but cycle even just as a mode of transport. This machine with two wheels, a frame and pedals, has been my life. It’s given me an incredible life. I love it. I love it so much. If everybody can get the same joy from a bicycle that I do, then I’ll be happy.
"And I hope that I can show that you don’t give up. You don’t give up. It’s as simple as that. It might be hard, but you don’t give up."
