Mark Cavendish needed to accept twenty second within the chaotic opening stage on the UAE Tour on Monday, however he might view the outing as a passing frustration somewhat than an pressing trigger for alarm. Each sprinter desires to win at each accessible alternative, after all, however since becoming a member of Astana Qazaqstan a yr in the past, Cavendish has the comfort of realizing that he gained’t be in need of possibilities to shine this season.
After years of preventing to carve out area for himself at QuickStep, Bahrain and even within the latter a part of his time at Dimension Knowledge, 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 nice distinction between life at Astana and at QuickStep.
“He’s extra relaxed, he doesn’t need to struggle for his place anymore,” Anastopoulos instructed Cyclingnews after Cavendish’s stint on the Tour Colombia earlier this month. “He’s already identified his programme for this yr since September, the programme he has to observe 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 need to struggle for his place, whereas in Quickstep he all the time needed to show himself and he wasn’t positive 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 thought 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 lengthen 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 largest mission for us was not the Tour Colombia, it was to organize the season,” Anastopoulos mentioned. “I simply wished to go and do an altitude camp with the fellows, away from the distractions and the lengthy climbs in Europe, so away from Teide or Sierra Nevada.
“To me, Colombia was the best 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 instructed, Cavendish, Alexey Lutsenko et al spent the bones of a month in Colombia, beginning with every week in Rionegro close to Medellín as an introduction to coaching at altitude, earlier than transferring above 2,500m once they relocated to the division of Boyacá for the fortnight previous to the race.
“Logistically, it wasn’t straightforward to organise coaching as a result of on daily basis 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 selected eye to the demanding opening to this yr’s Tour de France. The 38-year-old is because of undertake one other stint at altitude in Sierra Nevada in late Could 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 after all, there have been instances 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 using the UAE Tour this week, Cavendish will transfer on to Italy in March to trip 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 remaining 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 Could, earlier than returning to altitude in Sierra Nevada.
“After that, we’ve to decide on between the Tour de Suisse and ZLM Tour, nevertheless 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 highway 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 using at 39. That’s arduous. However he’s nonetheless bought it.”
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