The Tour of Oman is the race where Mark Cavendish has made his debut for the Astana Qazaqstan Team, a long-awaited debut after a rough winter for the Manxman who saw his future in pro cycling swing quite severely.
“I just want to race. Like every other bike rider, I just want to be on the same level as every bike rider who doesn’t have a story written about them when they haven’t done anything," Cavendish said ahead of the race. "I want to be on the same level as every other bike rider: let my legs do the talking of what I do, enjoy riding my bike with my teammates, and be treated as a human being. That’s it, that’s all I want, that’s all I’ve ever wanted, to be treated as a human being. Like every other bike rider that is here and in world cycling.”
Cavendish has stressed in the past few weeks and now again how in Astana he does not feel like he has to prove himself. The lack of pressure can do Cavendish good and he's decided to start his 2023 away from the spotlight, in Europe where over this period the calendar is absolutely stacked with racing and the main figures starting their seasons.
“They’ve just been nice. Anywhere you go, I guess if you go somewhere new as a journalist, if you go into a new situation, you’re always going to feel a bit on the outside,” Cavendish said regarding his first feelings in the Kazakh team. “If you come in and your colleagues embrace you it makes you feel nice straight away, it’s exactly the same as that. If you go into your first day of school you can either be nervous and be embrace or be left on the edge and I’ve been embraced really nicely here. It’s great. It’s a nice laugh.”
“I’m happy to start here in Oman, there are not many if any sprint opportunities but it’s a good place to prepare my race fitness and get to know the guys. There is more than just a sprint team in Astana, so to get to know each other properly it’s actually a very good place to do that here. It’s a good race to be able to do that," he continued.
Cavendish has been close to the front on the opening stage of the race, however on the slight uphill finish to Muscat he failed to have the power to contest the sprint, racing to 21st on the line. The week will have several climbing challenges, where he will be thinking more on building his form than is obtaining results.
“We haven’t really needed to have such an open conversation," Cavendish said on his upcoming calendar. "It just seems that we’re on the same page. A fundamental part is that I don’t have to prove myself. Picking and choosing riders is not something I’ve really ever done anyway. Astana actually has an incredibly strong team. For sure the sprints are very new to the team but with how they race."
The UAE Tour is the obvious next appointment in his schedule, but asked about what his spring will look like afterwards, Cavendish concluded: “I should be racing in Belgium at some point; we’re still ebbing and flowing on what my program is at the moment and how I start. I feel OK, but obviously it’s the same as every year: if you feel OK, so does everyone else, so you don’t see anything until you start racing.
🇴🇲 RACE: @tourofoman As it was expected, Stage 1 ended with a bunch sprint. In his first sprint for #AstanaQazaqstanTeam @MarkCavendish missed a bit to be in front, finishing 21st. Anyway, the team was happy to assist Mark today! Next time we will do it better! #TourofOman
