Mark Cavendish completed a carefully calculated but painful battle of survival during stage 1 of the Tour de France from Florence to Rimini. Despite vomiting early on and suffering in the extreme heat of the Italian summer, he managed to finish in the last gruppetto to live to fight another day.
“I was seeing stars, it was so hard,” he admitted.
During most stages of the Tour de France, the focus is on the front of the race. Stage 1 was also about who was suffering and dropped from the peloton, even on the first climb, more than 160 kilometres from the finish, and then in the other series of climbs through the Apennines towards Rimini and the Adriatic coast.
Cavendish, who is hoping to break the all-time record for Tour de France stage wins this year, rode through his sufferfest surrounded by teammates as they fought to make it to Rimini inside the time limit.
He eventually finished with his leadout and teammates Michael Mørkøv. Cees Bol, Yevgeniy Fedorov and Davide Ballerini. Sadly Michele Gazzoli failed to finish the stage. Fabio Jakobsen (Dsm-firmenich PostNL) was also part of the final gruppetto.
Cyclingnews witnessed how Cavendish poured cold water over his head and tried to recover from his effort as he quietly celebrated surviving the stage with his teammates. He rode on towards the Astana Qazaqstan team bus and, with the huge crowds cheering his name.
After a brief moment of recovery, he came out of the bus to explain how he survived the day. Afterwards he prepared to follow his teammates and enjoy a brief moment in an ice bath placed inside a team vehicle.
“It was the heat, it hit a lot of people,” Cavendish said, appearing to have at least partially recovered from his huge effort.
"If you've got my body type now, don't start cycling, because them days are gone," he said, of the suffering needed even on a hilly first stage of the Tour.
Cavendish and his Astana Qazaqstan team car were in control of their destiny, calculating and pacing their efforts on the series of climbs on the road to Rimini.
"But we know what we're doing - it doesn't mean it's easy. We're not riding around talking. It was so hard - that was so hard, but we had a plan and we stuck to it. I would have liked to stay one more climb with the peloton, but I was seeing stars, it was so hard.
“It’s a bit boring but that’s the way cycling has gone,” Cavendish explained as the many fans packed around the team bus called his name and offered him support.
“It makes a nice story but the time limit is not there to put people out of the race, it’s there for when people are sick and injured and carry on.”
Cavendish lived to fight another day and should have little problem on stage 2 Bologna due to the early flat roads. His first chance to fight for victory is on stage to Turin, when the first bunch sprint is expected.
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