In the event you’re questioning how Mark Cavendish will have fun his record-breaking Tour de France stage win, his coach, Vasilis Anastopoulos, already is aware of the rating.
“An enormous celebration tonight,” he informed the press gathered outdoors the Astana-Qazaqstan bus. “A Greek celebration, that is for certain. We’ll smash quite a lot of plates on the lodge tonight. Vino [Alexandre Vinokourov, team manager] goes to pay quite a bit tonight, I can assure that.”
A Greek celebration might sound a bit off the wall for a Brit on a Kazakh staff, however it should not.
This yr, the sprinter has spent a lot time within the nation that Anastopoulos’s kids have given him an adoptive identify. “His identify is Markos Cavendishopolous,” the coach stated, triggering a ripple of laughter from the journalists.
“Originally of April, he got here to Greece with me. We spent three months in Greece in between [the Tour of] Turkey, [Tour de] Hungary and Tour de Suisse. We skilled on daily basis collectively, believed within the course of – I can let you know that it was not a simple one. However we by no means stopped believing that this might come true.”
The assumption, ultimately, was not misplaced. Exterior an uninspiring industrial property on the outskirts of the village of Saint-Vulbas, Cavendish made historical past because the all-time stage win file holder of the Tour de France. He now counts thirty 5 victories, from his first in 2008, to his newest on Wednesday afternoon.
(Picture credit score: Getty Photos)
The plan for breaking the file was hatched in December final yr. ‘Venture 35’, because it grew to become recognized inside Astana-Qazaqstan, promised to ship one of many sport’s crowning moments. Anastopoulos was put answerable for main it.
The most recent race content material, interviews, options, opinions and skilled shopping for guides, direct to your inbox!
“We began with our coaching camps already from December,” the coach stated. “I feel in December, usually, he spent solely 4 days at house.”
That quantity has since solely expanded to “most 15 days”, Anastopoulos estimates, which means Cavendish has spent extra time together with his coach than his circle of relatives this yr. “I hope he does not hate me for that,” the 48-year-old smiled.
After a prolonged spring stint in Greece, Cavendish travelled to final month’s Tour de Suisse, the place he stored a low profile, constructing his climbing legs by way of the Alps. Afterwards, he returned as soon as once more to Anastopoulos’s house nation.
“We spent the entire week doing dash work, due to all of the climbs we did earlier than,” the coach stated. “The info I had informed me that he was able to doing it.
“You noticed right now why he is such an enormous champion. He is 39 years outdated. A lot of the guys stated he isn’t going to make it. He proved them flawed in 2021, after which he proved everybody flawed once more in 2024. He is simply phenomenal.”
It was in 2021 that Anastopoulos and Cavendish first struck up a relationship and commenced working collectively at Fast-Step. That summer season on the Tour, having gone 5 years winless on the race, the sprinter received 4 levels and equalled the all-time file, drawing stage with Eddy Merckx.
He returned to the race in 2022, his thoughts centered on yet one more victory. That likelihood, nonetheless, was cruelly pulled away from him midway by way of day eight, when he crashed, broke his collarbone, and deserted the race.
“I informed him, ‘Mate, should you proceed, we’re collectively, we’ll make it’,” Anastopoulos remembers. “On the evening that he was on the hospital, after he had the surgical procedure, we promised one another that we might simply go for yet one more.”
(Picture credit score: Getty Photos)
This yr’s route introduced eight flat levels, so the pair knew they might have a number of cracks on the file. “Our greatest problem was these three days in Italy,” Anastopoulos stated. “We noticed the primary day he was struggling due to the warmth, however we had been by no means in a panic. We managed issues.
“Yesterday, I feel we made an ideal plan on arriving simply within the time restrict, with out spending an excessive amount of [energy]. When the grupetto went away yesterday on the final climb, we informed him to remain calm, comply with his personal watts – the watts we had already predicted earlier than – to be able to arrive right now as recent as potential.”
So recent, the truth is, that Cavendish’s flip of pace in Saint-Vulbas was staggering. Darting throughout the street, he held off final yr’s inexperienced jersey winner, Jasper Philipsen, a person 13 years his junior, thought-about to be the perfect sprinter on this planet.
What is the secret to Cavendish’s longevity? “Exhausting work,” replied Anastopoulos. “He is phenomenal. He can do the work like no one else. That is what makes him such an enormous champion.
“He was below strain. All people was speaking about it; 35, 35, from the beginning of the season, when he introduced that he would proceed for yet one more season. You can not think about how a lot strain this man was below. However he is a terrific champion, and solely champions can deal with this strain.”
Now, Anastopoulos continued, the plan is for Cavendish to “win as a lot as potential” in his farewell Tour. “We’re not going to cease,” he stated. There could possibly be extra Greek events to come back, and a plate scarcity throughout rural France.
