Mark Cavendish Quotes

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Mark Cavendish

Profession : Cyclist

Birth : May 21, 1985

I'm going to do the Commonwealth Games for no other reason than national pride. It's something special getting to ride for the Isle of Man.

Mark Cavendish

Second doesn't mean anything in cycling.

Mark Cavendish

I use an inhaler myself and have done since I was 15.

Mark Cavendish

I'm pretty happy with my career. I just know what I'm capable of.

Mark Cavendish

Track and road cycling are very different things. It is easy to look at them both as cycling but going from the road to the track is like asking Andy Murray to play squash: yes, it's a racket sport like tennis, but it's not the same.

Mark Cavendish

I don't know why, but despite winning how many world championships, how many Tour stages, and being 31 years old, some people still thought I had to prove myself, you know. So I had to do the Track Worlds to try to prove myself.

Mark Cavendish

I like to have plans in place so I know what I am doing and when. Take nutrition. When I am on the bike I will start off eating solid food like rice cakes made with pistachios or energy bars. Then as the race goes on, halfway though I will switch to gels as they get into your system more quickly and they are easier to palate when you're tired.

Mark Cavendish

If somebody had told me as a kid that I would win 30 stages of the Tour de France I probably wouldn't have imagined it. I probably imagined I could do it - I don't lack confidence - but at the end of the day one Tour de France stage win can make a rider's career.

Mark Cavendish

Every rider trains their muscles but few train their brain.

Mark Cavendish

During the Tour you get tired, you get exhausted, you're in pain and you can get sick for a few days but still have to ride through it.

Mark Cavendish

Crashes are the worst thing because your wounds stick to you, so you are sweating into your road rash all day and when you try to sleep your wounds are sticking to the bed sheets. It is part of the job and we know the risks.

Mark Cavendish

The descents are quite fun - everybody has a sort of competition and tries to go for it and then you compare top speeds when you get to the bottom.

Mark Cavendish

Sometimes the hardest part of the stage is right at the beginning. The other teams will leave it to us to chase down a breakaway, and we can't allow a big group to go up the road - anything more than four riders is trouble.

Mark Cavendish

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.

Mark Cavendish

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.

Mark Cavendish

I'm 100% a sprinter... an old school one, not one of these new guys that can climb and sprint.

Mark Cavendish

A lot of people in the Isle of Man support me and it makes it all worthwhile when people are interested in what you're doing. I dunno if the word 'famous' is appropriate, but I'm quite well known on the Isle of Man.

Mark Cavendish

I think any professional athlete who says they stick to a strict diet and weigh their food out every time is either lying or they're sick.

Mark Cavendish

I started getting into decent food after I got a house in Tuscany, near the British cycling academy's training base. For a cyclist, the area is incredible, with the flats of the basin of Florence, the heights of the Apennines and the small climbs around Chianti.

Mark Cavendish

Since we married, Peta's taken over a lot of my cooking and she's incredible. She'll do different meals for me and the kids, depending on my regime. If I name 10 ingredients she'll change the recipe every day.

Mark Cavendish