Mark Cavendish Returns to the Track
Story posted March 25
By Larry Hickmott
Back in Manchester on Saturday and on the track after a spell on the road in Italy, one of the big stars of the road racing scene Mark Cavendish has returned to the venue where only a month or so ago he won the British Madison championship with fellow Isle of Man rider Peter Kennaugh (pictured). In Italy, Mark who last rode the World Track Championships in 2006, kept his road legs intact by racing a seven day stage race and said today that after a few days, his track legs were coming back to him.
“I’ve just put the race gear on and it feels better than it did on the small gears. In Italy, it was just a case of riding through it after the first aim was to ride Paris-Nice which finished two weeks before the Worlds. If I had ridden that, I could have gone full gas in it and had time to recover and fit in my track preparation. If I had gone full gas in Tirreno I would have had to have a recovery period and not had any time for track work.”
“It was a case of just riding through Tirreno, recovering for a few days and then go straight into track preparation. The aim there was to get in form for the Track Worlds.”
Asked what he learnt at the Madison Championships about going from the road to the track, he replied “it was a nice surprise because I found out I don’t need to do that much track preparation for it” adding that having already a lot of natural speed, all he has to work on is his endurance.
At the Track Worlds, his events will be the Points race and Madison. Mark explained that he had ridden a Points race before and won that at the European Championships. He admits that the European win was at Under 23 level and this would be a different kettle of fish. “I have a lot to learn before I even go in to it and ideally I would like to have had it on the first day. Obviously it will take a bit out of me the day before the Madison but I have to live with that as it will be the same for a lot of the riders in the Madison.”
Finally, he admits as the racing is only a day away and the atmosphere is starting to build that it is exciting to see the World Championships at Manchester and that with it being at home, it made it a very appealing prospect for him to do. Good luck to Mark for the coming week.
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