“The times they are doing in team pursuit is unfathomable” - Mark Cavendish blown away by the times posted on the track at Paris Olympics
Track Cycling
At the 2024 Tour de France, Mark Cavendish wrote the final chapter of his legendary story in cycling's most iconic race, taking sole ownership of the Tour de France stage win record ahead of Eddy Merckx with his 35th sprint win in Saint Vulbas on stage 5.
Whilst the three-time Olympian and former silver medallist in the omnium back at the 2016 Rio Olympics, isn't part of either the track or road teams for Great Britain in Paris this summer, the 39-year-old joined Eurosport in the French capital to reflect on his memories on the biggest sporting event in the world and give his analysis of what he has seen this year.
“The times they are doing in team pursuit both men and women is unfathomable,” Cavendish tells Orla Chennaoui. “It’s so crazy, they are all on such a limit where if you put it one little bit further everything can go bad and that is what has made it exciting again. The British lads did incredible but the Aussies broke the world record with a time that is hard to comprehend when I started doing it years ago."
“The girls, of course they miss Katie [Archibald, who is out with injury]. She would have walked away from this Olympics with three gold medals, but they went out and they did it and have come home with a medal," the 'Manx Missile' continues. "The girls got that world record in the team sprint too and they have been working for years and years to get bigger like that and it’s great to see. Across the board we always have a strong track team and that has not changed here, other nations have stepped up, it’s not because we have gone backwards.”
Whilst Cavendish is more fondly remembered for his performance in the road and in the bunch sprints, his track career is nothing to be sniffed at. The aforementioned silver medal from the Olympic Games in 2016 plus a trio of Madison world titles in 2005, 2008 and 2016 respectively.
“Track cycling at the Olympics is the pinnacle," he explained. "I am proud to be British and I am super proud every time I put on that jersey. There is no bigger stage to pull on that jersey than the Olympics. You really feel the whole country is there supporting you and willing this event with you. It is special. It’s nice to do.”
Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
claps 4visitors 4
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- You can clearly see the the posture change from slightly sitting to again out of the saddle while changing of gears in the video of the sprintabstractengineer08-11-2026
- He has already beaten Pogi twice in the TDF. the achievement is over. He cannot beat Pogi now and he only has a few years left at the top. Win Giro and compete in the TDF, maximise palmares.abstractengineer08-11-2026
- Just looked again at the photo. Yeah I stand by that. If MS had fallen over in Brands direction I don’t even think she would have hit her. You must be a UCI race commissioner. I’ll be sure to check my sock height should I ever see you on a ride. Looks like everyone else on here sees what I see.mij08-11-2026
- I said looking at the photo it doesn’t appear she deviated. Chill out, not stating my word is the final judgement. Just commenting that based on the photo I don’t see it. And BTW the Dutch coach even said she didn’t impede her.mij08-11-2026
- Blah Blah Blah !frieders308-11-2026
- MS said she was changing gears so that caused her slight deviation. Nothing was intentional.frieders308-11-2026
- How can you use a photo post incident to judge the incident itself (which is not hard to find if you’re prepared to invest the same amount of time in searching as writing that comment? It’s harsh but technically right even though this or worse is not always sanctioned in every race. The two things that went against MS (who unfortunately for her would still have won without making her mistake) are that it was not a bunch sprint where there could have been an overlooked incident or mitigating circumstances explaining a deviation. Everything was focused on just those 2, Schreiber was riding beautifully balanced which made her sudden deviation look unnatural stroke as if it could have been in some part intentional whilst she was slowly drifting ever closer towards the barrier to a point that would have reached obstruction level. In her defence, it might have been the realisation she was heading towards that that made her react suddenly and caused the deviation involuntarily. In any case, congratulations to her for the ride of her life, in people’s minds she will be credited for it.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- Good boy Obviously doesn’t need that much help dealing with pressure, as some have suggested. Wiser (and humbler) than many far further along their careers. About offering him the moon, recently someone came up with an explanation of the downfall of a football great (either referring to Maradona or Portuguese Ronaldo) saying it was kind of normal after coming back from the moon, except that others, including some who actually did go to the moon like Armstrong (Neil in case anyone is too switched off to realise) didn’t go through any of the same motions after coming back. A lot of how you deal with situations has less to do with the situation than with your character.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- I think that they're not really used to dealing with this type of incident in a cyclocross race, and the situation has been magnified because it was a race for a championship title. It's very unfortunate that the race had to be decided in this way.
santiagobenites07-11-2026 - Seriously why do they keep doing stupid things like this. Its one thing to relegate when the placings are minor, when the action is blatant. But when it is ambiguous, why dont they at least take advice from some higher up to avoid embarrassing themselves. This is similar to the Halland goal when his teammate was clearly offside and interfered in play and VAR gave them the goal. if you dont have evidence you cannot convict. Even for doping they have these rulesabstractengineer07-11-2026
Loading
Write a comment