PROLOGUE
Turkish delight for Cavendish
MARK CAVENDISH ENDS WIN DROUGHT
PROCYCLING :AT THE HEART OF THE PELOTON
Cavendish ends a wait of more than two years for a win, on stage 2 of the Tour of Turkey ahead of Philipsen
Images: Franklin (main), Mahe (Bennett)/all via Getty Images, Sam Flanagan (Brown).
“ They can eat Vegemite, but they have to like it”
Grace
Brown on initiating the foreign riders into Aussie culture on Team BikeExchange page 86
Comeback of the century or dead cat bounce? As always in cycling discourse, and as always in Mark Cavendish discourse, opinions on the Manxman’s four sprint victories at the Tour of Turkey were sharply divided, while the truth probably sat somewhere between the extremes.
Cavendish, coming off the back of four disappointing seasons beset by illness, had already looked perkier in 2021 than for years. In the Belgian one-day races he was fighting for wins - he mistimed his sprint at the GP Monseré and was beaten by Tim Merlier. Jakub Mareczko beat him into second on stage 1 of the Settimana Coppi e Bartali. And at Scheldeprijs, Deceuninck didn’t seem to have a focused gameplan - Bennett second and Cavendish third, both behind Jasper Philipsen. But he was sprinting for wins - in 2019 and 2020 especially, he’d simply looked off the pace and wasn’t even getting into position to sprint for a win, let alone execute the sprint itself.