Then there was the $50,000 per person ‘training camp’ set up by Armstrong in Mallorca last year that was attended by a Who’s Who of dopers, which was attended also by Cavendish and Wiggins. <\/p>\n\n\n\n L-R: Lance Armstrong, George Hincapie, Mark Cavendish, Brad Wiggins, Jan Ullrich and Johan Bruyneel<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, there’s no doubt he’s a hell of a rider and, as he prepares to call time on his career, it’s worth considering it all for a moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And what a career it has been, one that was often perched on the edge of glory on one side and bitter disappointment on the other. He has always been a \u2018sprinter\u2019s sprinter\u2019: impulsive, emotional, built for the 70km per hour fight for the line. And he\u2019s a winner. He\u2019s won everywhere, from the velodrome to Milan San Remo. He\u2019s a former world and Commonwealth champion and Olympic medallist on the track, and a world champion on the road too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet it\u2019s the Tour de France that defines his career, and also the man himself.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n As Cavendish put it after winning his first Tour stage for five years in 2021: \u201cThis race has given me the life I\u2019ve had, and I\u2019ve given it the life I had.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He has a record-equalling 34 stage victories at the race, a record shared with the great Eddy Merckx, who had many more chances to win stages than Cavendish. Merckx was not only an accomplished sprinter but also a great climber and time trialist. For Cavendish, the flat is his natural habitat and he must suffer and hurt in the Tour whenever it goes uphill to have a chance of victory later.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n At this year’s Tour there are six flat stages that, barring a successful breakaway, will likely end in mass sprints. Six shots at immortality…<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/crankpunk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/fbf29-screenshot-2023-05-23-at-10.28.20-am.png?resize=2120%2C1098&ssl=1\")
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