MARK Cavendish has spoken out for the first time about the tactics of his cycling opponents and the journalists who write about him in a straight-talking interview at the weekend in the national press.
Cavendish, 25, pulled no punches in his interview in the Independent on Sunday as the end of his fantastic season approaches - his final event being his pride in representing the Isle of Man in Delhi at the Commonwealth Games.
The article - entitled “Mad Manx Cavendish settles scores” - gives the outspoken Manxman the chance to lets rip at sloppy journalists and jealous rivals and he pulls no punches in attacking the
Cavendish’s fantastic performances in the Tour de France and Tour de Espana have made him the world’s highest profile professional cyclist - and consequently he has been the target of journalists all over the world, most recently the Australians, attacking him in the Melbourne media as he competed in the world road race championships.
In the Independent interview, Cav gets down to basics about the way he has been targeted this season. . .
"It's all been about not giving people the fuel, so they can't criticise me, it's not worth it," he says. "The whole Tour [de France], I said to myself 'I'll just do the usual bland staff, not talk, answer every question with I'm happy to be here'."
Cavendish claims some journalists regularly take his comments out of context and, as a regular trawler of the worldwide web, he gets very annoyed when he reads any misleading articles.
Here, at least, he lets rip: "If I've done something bad, and I get the s*** for it, I don't care, it's when it's an ill-informed ignoramus who writes complete s***, someone who is so far off the truth it's not a fact, it's an opinion, that's what gets me.
"In my press conference in January I said that 2010 was all about the second half of the season [the Tours of France and Spain and the Worlds]. And there were still journalists who asked: 'Is Mark Cavendish in meltdown this spring?' "
He cites one particular run-in with a reporter: "In 2010 on the Champs Elysées stage, [this journalist] says someone has accused me of pulling [getting illegal tows] on cars.
"Are you f****** kidding me? If I go back, let alone if I'm dropped, I have two race officials, TV cameras, an ice-cream van and a marching band following me. How the f*** am I going to hold on to a car?
"[The journalist] comes out with that. How is that going to sell more newspapers? It certainly doesn't make him look like a good journalist, it makes him look like a ****, he's coming to try and ruin a sport. Go home and f****** write for a trashy magazine if you want to do that s***."
Cavendish's success rate is such that he is also coming across some increasingly nefarious attempts to lay him low in sprints. At least one team, he told The Independent On Sunday, are trying to get him to lose by systematically lodging protests.
"They openly complain about every single thing and they openly admit it," he says. "I've spoken to guys in that team and say 'why do you do it?' and they said 'we've got to find a way to beat you'. That's not fair, and that's not sporting."
He says one particular team manager protests at Cavendish's sprints because he "tries to f*** with me at every possible opportunity, which is ironic considering he was a sprinter and I actually looked up to him. But now I have no respect for him".
The situation has got so bad, Cavendish says, that it's affecting the way he sprints. He cites one stage in the Tour of Spain where he failed to ride across the road to try and drop a rival shadowing him because he feared he would be penalised. "I'm terrified of doing anything now," he says. "I can't make a move like that and it puts me at a disadvantage."
Certainly race officials are not slow to react to any unusual manoeuvre by the British rider. When Cavendish "jumped" across the finish line to celebrate a win in Spain – an unusual celebration that put nobody at risk except himself – he nonetheless received a warning. Some sources said he had even risked an exclusion.
Meanwhile, such is Cavendish's success that he has repeatedly been linked with the British Team Sky for 2011. But the HTC-Columbia rider says it's not happening. "There are rumours now, and there were rumours last year, but the thing is I'm not somebody who needs to go somewhere because of their nationality.
“Lots of Italian riders sign with Italian squads because they're Italian, French riders in French teams, British riders in British teams. I go wherever the best place is for me to be. Right now I like where I am and I'm here [at HTC] next year."
Cavendish will start as one of the favourites for the gold medal in the Commonwealth Games road race as he flies to Delhi, expecting to arrive there in the next few days.
He says he hasn't been fazed by the reports of problems with accommodation, security or health and safety.
Cav is also proud to be wearing the Isle of Man shirt and representing the Island. "I am very proud to have a Commonwealth gold medal back home and I'd like to get another one in a few days' time."
To confirm his commitment, Cav has been in touch with the Isle of Man team's general manager Trevor Taubman and has promised he will be there for the road race.
