Mark Cavendish insists “sprinting is not an addiction to me, not at all" after tricky start to final season

Having initially planned to retire at the end of the 2023 season, Mark Cavendish changed his mind after crashing out of last year's Tour de France and has returned for one last season in the peloton this year.

“Sprinting is not an addiction to me, not at all. Racing is, riding my bike is, but sprinting definitely not,” the legendary sprinter of Astana Qazaqstan Team insists however, in conversation with Road Code after a slightly disappointing start to the year that has resulted in a DNF/DNS at each of his last three races. “In a sprint I'm okay but before can be pretty terrified. It’s definitely not an addiction. It's what I do, it's how I’m built. I can sprint and it served me quite well in bike races. I can’t really complain.”

“I like sprinting because it's not just about how many watts you can put through a pedal," Cavendish continues. “Sprinting holds onto that last bit of tactics that’s left. It’s about working it out, playing a game of chess, understanding your opponents and the conditions and the finish. It’s about putting it all together and working out the best way to plan to win. You can change how you win and I love that. Everything is focused on the race; there's no real fear, no real joy, no real emotion. It's quite methodical.”

With a return date planned for the upcoming Tour of Turkey and the Tour de Hongrie, Cavendish will be hoping for a positive performance in order to build up some momentum ahead of his final Tour de France later this summer.