Mark Cavendish Keeps Faith in 35th Tour de France Stage Win: 'He's Back on Track ... Everything Is Possible'

Mark Cavendish and Team Astana Qazaqstan continue to back their Tour de France project and the mission to write a new line of cycling history.

“Team Cav” has faith that wily experience and bullish self-belief will deliver the Manxman an Eddy Merckx-topping 35th stage win at the Tour de France this summer.

“If the next few weeks go as planned, everything is possible at the Tour de France,” Cavendish’s trainer Vasilis Anastopoulos told Velo.

“Things didn’t go well for Mark for quite a while. But we’re past that,” Anastopoulos said. “The confidence is there for Mark, and the whole team.”

Anastopoulos said on a call Wednesday the rockets are firing again after the heat temporarily went out of the “The Missile.”

The 39-year-old was derailed by a spring of sickness and knocked by a confidence-kicking failure to make the time cut this March at Tirreno-Adriatico.

Three months and a crucial stage win later, “Project 35″ lives on.

“I won’t give any chances or predictions. I can’t say if a stage win is 60 or 70 percent or whatever,” Anastopoulos said. “But I do know he’s back on track now and that he and the whole team is behind this Tour de France objective.

“If Mark arrives at the Tour healthy and in the condition we expect per the plan, everything is possible,” Anastopoulos told Velo. “Why not?”

Cavendish’s hunt for a history-making stage win will be the subplot of what could be his last Tour de France.

After being denied last year by a skipping chain during the sprint into Bordeaux and crashing out less than 24 hours later, Cavendish needs things to click his way just one time to steal all the headlines away from the GC “Big 4.”

Anastopoulos believes Cavendish’s extra decade of experience over top rivals Dylan Groenewegen, Mads Pedersen, and 2023 green jersey Jasper Philipsen could be the key to making that one moment of magic.

“You need to use all your experience for a race as hard as the Tour de France,” Anastopoulos said in a call to his home in Athens.

“It’s not only about power and about speed,” he said. “You need to make decisions in the right moments, to understand how to use energy during the stages, how not to be stressed by the whole race. Some of those learnings only come with time.

“OK, Mark is old now, he’s 39. But the experience he has, and that [leadout man] Mørkøv has, is second to no one. And that’s a huge advantage over these other guys,” Anastopoulos said. “None of the other Tour de France sprinters can match that.”

Cavendish won for the first time at the Tour de France all the way back in 2008. Some of his 2024 rivals might have been scooting around on kiddies’ trikes the moment the-then 23-year-old beat Óscar Freire and Erik Zabel into Châteauroux.

After a season with only two wins on the palmarès, Cavendish will need all the old man wisdom he can muster when the Tour rolls out two-and-a-half weeks from now.

2024: From horror show to Hongrie

Cavendish cut an unusually quiet figure this year.

An early season win in Colombia and a whole lot of accompanying hype dissolved into a spring of illness and a mojo-sapping experience in the mountains at Tirreno-Adriatico.

Cavendish abandoned the sprinter Super Bowl of the UAE Tour in February without a result and with a sickness he couldn’t stifle.

One month later, his Tirreno-Adriatico ended in disaster when he was timed out in a grueling stage over the rugged spine of the Apennines.

A DNF at Milano-Torino followed one week later.

“The spring was not good for us or for the team. It felt like a lot of good work from winter was undone,” Anastopoulos said. “For sure, all that impacted the morale.

“Mark needs confidence in his performance in order to really thrive.”

Victory at the low-key Tour de Hongrie early last month helped Cavendish turn the page on a spring to forget.

“Mark’s good, he’s very happy, very motivated right now,” Anastopoulos said.

“That win in Hungary was very important,” he continued. “It was a big boost for Mark’s morale, the morale of the team, and the confidence the team has in him.

“It was a good win for him, that one. It felt significant.”

Astana Qazaqstan boss Alexander Vinokourov kept “Cav” on the books last winter with July front of mind.

Anastopoulos confirmed to Velo the Kazakh crew will be all-in on Cavendish at the Tour de France this summer.

Mørkøv, Cees Bol, and Davide Ballerini will be the core of a “Tour 8″ focused on the five sprints available in a mountain-packed race. Cavendish’s former wingman Mark Renshaw will be directing from the team car.

Alexey Lutsenko will be the odd-climber-out in a strapping Astana Qazaqstan selection.

“We had a really good training camp with all the guys last month in Sierra Nevada. All the leadout was there, and things are working well with them,” Anastopoulos said.

“The mood is good. Mark’s going well, and when he sees the other guys doing good, that boosts him further.”

Confidence is key for Cav: ‘Mark has a lot of belief in this project’

Anastopoulos helped Cavendish defy the doubters during their shared time at Deceuninck Quick-Step when the sprinter won four stages and the green jersey at the 2021 Tour de France.

The Greek trainer told Velo that Cavendish’s power files are currently close to those of his Merckx-equaling run three years ago.

A week-long camp close to Athens in the week before the Tour will put the finishing touches on the Missile’s second burn and draw the watts closer to his four-win summer.

“We don’t look at the other guys like Philipsen or whoever, or think about their level. But I’m convinced that if Mark performs at the level that we’re used to and we expect, then he has a very good chance at the Tour,” Anastopoulos said.

Anastopoulos and Cavendish forged a close relationship during their time at Soudal Quick-Step.

The Greek became part-coach-part-counsellor in a role that made his hire by Astana Qazaqstan a non-negotiable.

Anastopoulos has seen Cavendish at his highest and his lowest.

Right now, the trainer-turned-mentor is convinced things are looking upward.

“Mark has a lot of belief in this project, and he can see the whole team has a lot of belief in it,” Anastopoulos told Velo. “That’s one of the most important things. Confidence can mean a lot for Mark. For his mind and his sprints.”

Suffering in Suisse for a slice of Tour de France history

Cavendish races one last time before the Tour de France this week at the Tour de Suisse in what is a cruel choice for a fast-finisher. Like last week’s Critérium du Dauphiné, the Swiss tour is laden with Alps and short of sprint finals.

Meanwhile, the alphas of the Tour de France sprinter pack are sharpening their fangs at the Baloise Tour, starting Wenesday.

Philipsen and Jakobsen are joined in Belgium by Tim Merlier and Olav Kooij for what should be the ultimate pre-Tour tester of sprinter prowess.

Cavendish and Anastopoulos thought different. The Tour de Suisse will serve Cavendish a lesson in suffering and dissolve any memories of his humiliation in the mountains this March.

“To do sprints in modern cycling, you need to survive the climbs,” Anastopoulos said.

“This year’s Tour de France in partciular is extremely, extremely difficult. There are so many climbs, even in the first two stages,” he said. “Mark needs to be ready for that suffering.

“And for Mark, the target isn’t only for the one stage, but to finish the whole Tour. He needs climbing kilometers in his legs to do that.”

A 35th stage win this summer at the Tour de France will make all the uphill worth it.