Top 89 Quotes & Sayings by Mark Cavendish
Explore popular quotes and sayings by a Manx cyclist Mark Cavendish.
Last updated on December 23, 2024.
I'm fortunate in one way and I can take pride from the fact that I've consistently performed for 10 years, which is something that not many people can do. I've consistently stayed near the top for 10 years which is maybe something that is overlooked and taken for granted.
If you don't enjoy something you can't keep at it. That's the thing that sticks with me.
All that matters is to be first across the line.
Once you can accept that you have a mental illness, that is when you can work on it.
Cycling is unique in that in any other sport I'd be in a different weight category or discipline. What I do is a different sport to what Chris Froome does.
I need to be on a bike, mentally as much as physically.
I'm a fan of motorsport and a fan of McLaren and I was lucky to work with the company on a small scale across my career but to be able to race now with that brand on my jersey, it's pretty special. I still have to rein in my fanboy attitude sometimes.
The stronger you are as a unit, the more you can control a race. The strongest cyclist in the world isn't as strong as two guys, let alone nine.
In a sprint you make 100 decisions a second. What if X goes now and Y goes then? Should I take this gap or that one? You have to be sharp. Over time it becomes instinct.
The other sprinters are big and powerful but I have different strengths. The first thing is my leg speed. Most guys sprint at 120 revolutions per minute but I sprint at 130-140: think of it like a smaller engine revving faster. My body is shorter too, so I can lean over the handlebars for a more aerodynamic profile: again, think a smaller engine but in an F1 car.
I'm going to do the Commonwealth Games for no other reason than national pride. It's something special getting to ride for the Isle of Man.
Every rider trains their muscles but few train their brain.
Track and road cycling are very different things. It is easy to look at them both as cycling but going from the road to the track is like asking Andy Murray to play squash: yes, it's a racket sport like tennis, but it's not the same.
One thing I do get aggravated by is people shouting with frustration if they get pushed and shoved in sprints. I don't push and shove anyone, but I don't care if somebody does it to me.
During the Tour you get tired, you get exhausted, you're in pain and you can get sick for a few days but still have to ride through it.
A lot of the riders end up in Monaco, but I don't need to be there for the tax purposes because I'm from the Isle of Man.
I don't know why, but despite winning how many world championships, how many Tour stages, and being 31 years old, some people still thought I had to prove myself, you know. So I had to do the Track Worlds to try to prove myself.
The Tour de France is ridiculously hard.
I started getting into decent food after I got a house in Tuscany, near the British cycling academy's training base. For a cyclist, the area is incredible, with the flats of the basin of Florence, the heights of the Apennines and the small climbs around Chianti.
Sometimes it can be more tiring with the kids than on the bike but I'm absolutely loving it.
Yorkshire is a hard place to ride a bike.
I have to cross the line first. Sometimes you can put it as a fear of losing, but actually it's an addiction to winning.
I never think: 'If I crash, I'm going to hurt myself.' I might think: 'If I crash, I'm not going to win.' Everything's about that finish line.
Everybody who rides a motorbike thinks they can ride MotoGP. Anybody who does a Gran Fondo thinks they can do pro cycling. Anyone who drives a Corsa thinks they can do Formula 1.
The thing with depression is you don't realise you have it and even when you do you don't want to realise you have it.
But you have to take asthma seriously. People do not realise the stress our bodies go under.
If you're on the top for your sport or 10 years it's going to seem like you've had more knock-backs than someone who has been at the top for three years.
People's brains work differently. The brain is like a muscle and you have to train it, keep it active, keep active in races. I notice if I haven't raced for a while. It's hard to see things clearly so you have to relearn that.
You can only pre-plan stuff to a certain degree because there are so many variables - road conditions, weather conditions, mechanicals... You have an idea of whose wheel you want to be on.
Since we married, Peta's taken over a lot of my cooking and she's incredible. She'll do different meals for me and the kids, depending on my regime. If I name 10 ingredients she'll change the recipe every day.
I do want to race motorbikes when I retire.
It's been reported a lot that I've had two bouts of mononucleosis. The evidence suggests it wasn't two bouts, it was the same bout. I never got over it the first time. That's hard to explain to people. It makes it look like I'm not very resilient, whereas it was completely mismanaged.
I like to have plans in place so I know what I am doing and when. Take nutrition. When I am on the bike I will start off eating solid food like rice cakes made with pistachios or energy bars. Then as the race goes on, halfway though I will switch to gels as they get into your system more quickly and they are easier to palate when you're tired.
My job in the Tour is to get the sponsor's logo in the most prominent place.
I want to win wherever I race, the team's invested a lot in me.
I think any professional athlete who says they stick to a strict diet and weigh their food out every time is either lying or they're sick.
If you're on the top for 10 years it's going to seem like you have more crashes that someone on the top for three years. If you don't win as much in your ninth or 10th year it's going seem like you are on your way out.
Second doesn't mean anything in cycling.
The beautiful thing about cycling is that it is so accessible and that pleased me when I was younger because you felt like you could almost touch the athletes.
I use an inhaler myself and have done since I was 15.
I'm 100% a sprinter... an old school one, not one of these new guys that can climb and sprint.
When you win sprints, you're a great sprinter, but when you win a great one-day race, you've proved you're a great rider.
I have a fondness for junk food - it still calls me, sometimes.
The perception is that I've always made winning look easy. People think it's easy, but they don't see what's behind it, the time away from the family. The days spent climbing, training out in all weather, climbing but trying to keep the speed for the sprint.
Crashes are the worst thing because your wounds stick to you, so you are sweating into your road rash all day and when you try to sleep your wounds are sticking to the bed sheets. It is part of the job and we know the risks.
A lot of people in the Isle of Man support me and it makes it all worthwhile when people are interested in what you're doing. I dunno if the word 'famous' is appropriate, but I'm quite well known on the Isle of Man.
I'd love to have my achievements recognised and for people to know enough about cycling to understand what my achievements mean.
If somebody had told me as a kid that I would win 30 stages of the Tour de France I probably wouldn't have imagined it. I probably imagined I could do it - I don't lack confidence - but at the end of the day one Tour de France stage win can make a rider's career.
Sometimes the hardest part of the stage is right at the beginning. The other teams will leave it to us to chase down a breakaway, and we can't allow a big group to go up the road - anything more than four riders is trouble.
Psychological edge is massive in sprinting.
Between 20km and 10km to go, you want the whole team at the front. You don't necessarily want to take control, and the speed will be dictated by how many surges you get from the other teams. You don't want to go so fast they can't come, but you want to be just ahead so you're in control.
I'm pretty happy with my career. I just know what I'm capable of.
What keeps athletes going is the optimism we are going to be able to compete again.
I used to walk down a street and nobody would notice me. Now, I get stopped all the time; people saying, 'well done'. It makes me really, really proud to have done my bit to help make cycling a little bit more popular.
It's incredible the muscle damage you do in a sprint. You don't see it after the line, because we're smiling. But if you see the tent that we're in straight afterwards, you just collapse.
I'm not as talented as others, but I have a determination and will that enable me to work a lot harder than anyone else.
You can believe or you can doubt yourself. It's the difference between a gap being one metre late that you're gonna launch, then it's three seconds and you're sat on the wheel and you're about to lose.
At the end of the day I want to be the first rider across that finish line and I'll just find the quickest and easiest way to do it.
The Olympics is where you see out of this world performances, isn't it?
The descents are quite fun - everybody has a sort of competition and tries to go for it and then you compare top speeds when you get to the bottom.
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