A biography for Mark Cavendishhasn’t been written yet.
“I'm not as talented as others, but I have a determination and will that enable me to work a lot harder than anyone else.”
“For any young rider even competing in the San Remo is one of the biggest things - but to win it is beyond emotion. You can't put it into words.”
“Between 20km and 10km to go, you want the whole team at the front. You don't necessarily want to take control, and the speed will be dictated by how many surges you get from the other teams. You don't want to go so fast they can't come, but you want to be just ahead so you're in control.”
“It's my job. It's not a hobby, it's how I put food on the table for my family. I have to be on a bike.”
“The other sprinters are big and powerful but I have different strengths. The first thing is my leg speed. Most guys sprint at 120 revolutions per minute but I sprint at 130-140: think of it like a smaller engine revving faster. My body is shorter too, so I can lean over the handlebars for a more aerodynamic profile: again, think a smaller engine but in an F1 car.”
“I'd love to have my achievements recognised and for people to know enough about cycling to understand what my achievements mean.”
“It's been reported a lot that I've had two bouts of mononucleosis. The evidence suggests it wasn't two bouts, it was the same bout. I never got over it the first time. That's hard to explain to people. It makes it look like I'm not very resilient, whereas it was completely mismanaged.”
“A lot of the riders end up in Monaco, but I don't need to be there for the tax purposes because I'm from the Isle of Man.”
“People's brains work differently. The brain is like a muscle and you have to train it, keep it active, keep active in races. I notice if I haven't raced for a while. It's hard to see things clearly so you have to relearn that.”
“If you don't enjoy something you can't keep at it. That's the thing that sticks with me.”
“It's incredible the muscle damage you do in a sprint. You don't see it after the line, because we're smiling. But if you see the tent that we're in straight afterwards, you just collapse.”
“It's so ironic that the better you get the easier it becomes to win.”
“Cycling is unique in that in any other sport I'd be in a different weight category or discipline. What I do is a different sport to what Chris Froome does.”
“I think an Olympic medal is the only thing missing from what I can physically achieve as a cyclist. I can't win the Tour de France, but I've pretty much won everything else that I can within my physical realm, so that's the only thing missing.”
“I heal pretty well and I know if I crash on the first day of the Tour de France, I've got to get up and get on with it.”
“When you're a young pro from an undeveloped country in road cycling then you're on the back foot.”
“I'm fortunate in one way and I can take pride from the fact that I've consistently performed for 10 years, which is something that not many people can do. I've consistently stayed near the top for 10 years which is maybe something that is overlooked and taken for granted.”
“I want to win wherever I race, the team's invested a lot in me.”
“I always go for broke. It's win or nothing for me.”
“The perception is that I've always made winning look easy. People think it's easy, but they don't see what's behind it, the time away from the family. The days spent climbing, training out in all weather, climbing but trying to keep the speed for the sprint.”