Mark Cavendish is the greatest sprinter ever – here is why

It is 17 years since a rosy-cheeked 22-year-old Mark Cavendish was first seen at the Tour de France, barrelling around London in the opening-day prologue. On that occasion Cavendish was a T-Mobile team-mate of Axel Merckx; on Wednesday he pulled one stage win clear of another Merckx – Axel’s father Eddy – to become the Tour’s outright all-time record stage winner with a 35th victory etched into his palmarès.

Cavendish now stands in a league of his own, his legacy in the sport assured. He is, without question, the greatest road sprinter the Tour – and sport – has ever seen. Here, Telegraph Sport highlights four areas that have been key to Cavendish’s unprecedented success.

Longevity

Now in his 18th year racing in the top-flight of professional cycling – having spent two years earning his stripes in the second tier of the sport – Cavendish remains an outlier among his sprinting peers. While it is not unheard of for a rider’s career to last so long, it is rare for a sprinter to be still competing at the highest level in their late thirties.

When Cavendish made his Tour de France debut in 2007, he lined up alongside sprinting greats Robbie McEwen and Erik Zabel. Both sprinters’ best days were behind them which, given they started their careers in the 1990s – Zabel in 1994 at the height of the Miguel Induráin era – will come as little surprise.

Of his immediate sprinting contemporaries only André Greipel, who turned professional in 2006, has gone close to Cavendish when it comes to years spent in the professional ranks. His old team-mate – and occasional adversary – however, managed ‘just’ 16 years racing at the highest level of the sport, with the German winning 11 Tour stages over a six-year period from 2011-2016.

Throughout his career, sprinters have emerged onto the scene threatening to steal Cavendish’s thunder, but none have come close to matching his achievements at the Tour. During his pomp between 2008 and 2016 only Marcel Kittel threatened to break Cavendish’s almost vice-like grip on sprint stages at the race. After making an unremarkable Tour debut in 2012, Kittel returned the following year to win four stages – and landed another 10 between 2014 and 2017. Kittel retired in 2019 citing exhaustion.

When you look at who Cavendish has competed against – and in most cases, outlasted – it is a stark reminder at how his longevity has led, or certainly helped, him build such an impressive palmarès. In the case of Zabel, who worked with Cavendish following the German’s retirement, there is a particular twist. Not only did Cavendish compete against Erik Zabel, but also his son Rick who made his Tour debut in 2017. Zabel Jnr was outlasted by Cavendish, too, following his retirement in May.

Resilience

Having been fêted as the next big thing before making his Tour debut, Cavendish crashed out during the opening week after failing to land the slightest of jabs on any of his rival sprinters. It was not the last crash Cavendish was involved in at the Tour. Indeed, nor was it the last setback Cavendish would face on his ride to the pinnacle of the sport.

From a painful tooth abscess in 2010, being diagnosed with Epstein-Barr virus in 2017 through to his struggles with clinical depression the following year, Cavendish has, it is fair to say, been put through the wringer.

During an interview with Telegraph Sport in 2018, he said he would tell the 22-year-old version of himself to “take the chip off” his shoulder. It is perhaps that ‘chip’, however, that has driven Cavendish to the mental and physical lengths needed to succeed in what is, arguably, the toughest sport.

While photographs of his stage wins in Châteauroux or on the Champs-Élysées will be used to illustrate his career in years to come, it is the image of him labouring towards the finishing line in La Rosière at the 2018 Tour that provides a window into the mind of the man.

Cavendish, who had been dropped by the gruppetto and knew he was about to get kicked out of the Tour for missing the time cut, did what he has always done and kept on riding.

Cavendish’s determination – and pride – are the foundations on which his career has been built.

Brains over brawn

While it is an indisputable fact that Cavendish has benefited greatly from being surrounded by strong team-mates throughout his career, the skills crafted on the track while with the British Cycling Academy in Manchester have played a huge part in his successes.

Despite almost missing out on a spot on the academy after falling to produce the required power output numbers, Rod Ellingworth spotted not only Cavendish’s burning desire to succeed, but also his innate ability to read a race.

With a smaller frontal area than most, Cavendish’s aerodynamic drag is extremely low which, in simple terms, means he can punch through the air easier, or at least he requires less power to gain the same or increased speed to that of a larger rival. His size, coupled with power and sharp bike-handling in a galloping bunch means not only can he tuck in behind a lead-out, but also dart from wheel-to-wheel and ‘freelance’ towards the line in the absence of a train of team-mates.

The vast majority of his wins have been a result of a lead-out train – his HTC-Highroad squad perfected the art – but Cavendish is a natural-born racer who has the ability to find gaps when most cannot see them, and opportunities when others do not. During the wind-battered 13th stage of the 2013 Tour, Cavendish spotted a chance and went for it. While his sprint rivals were caught out by echelons, Cavendish went toe-to-toe with Peter Sagan before pulling off what was, perhaps, the most impressive win of his career – a victory a seasoned classics rider would be proud of.

Cavendish, also, is an economic rider. A rider who never wastes a single watt chasing a fruitless second or third place. The mark of a true champion who lives by the maxim: first is first, second is nowhere.

Numbers do not lie

There is a certain irony that for a rider who could have fallen through the cracks while at the British Cycling Academy in 2004 due to his numbers not matching those of his contemporaries, that 20 years later cold hard statistics will be used to underline Cavendish’s greatness.

Just two riders have more grand tour stage wins than Cavendish. Eddy Merckx won 64 (Giro d’Italia: 24, Tour de France: 34, Vuelta a España: six), while Mario Cipollini amassed two more than Cavendish with 57 (Giro: 42, Tour: 12, Vuelta: three). Cavendish, for the record, has won 17 at the Giro and three in Spain and, of course, 35 in the biggest race of all: the Tour.

It is extremely unlikely that Cavendish will ever overhaul Merckx’s grand tour record, while Cipollini’s all-time record of 42 stage wins at the Giro will, in all likelihood, remain intact for decades. It is the Tour, however, where greatness is measured. The Tour is the biggest and most important bike race in the world, with an estimated 80 per cent of most WorldTour team’s sponsorship income based around them being at the race. It is the race riders dream of being at; the race where careers and legacies are formed. Outside of the cycling cognoscenti it is the only race that really matters.

While greats of the sport Merckx, Bernard Hinault, André Leducq, André Darrigade and Nicolas Frantz sit alongside or below Cavendish in the all-time list of stage winners at the Tour, just one – the Briton – has won all of his 35 stages on the same or similar terrain. Even the great French sprinter Darrigade won four of his 22 stages on hilly terrain. Of the pure sprinters, Marcel Kittel is the closest to Cavendish – but with 20 fewer stage wins.

When it comes to Tour sprinters, Cavendish has eclipsed the lot.