He had such a bad time on the first climb that Mark Cavendish did not bother with the last two at the Milan-San Remo classic. The Manxman avoided the hills and the finish straight, slipping off the course, heading to the bus and then home to consider why his body had failed him on a day when he had expected to deliver so much more.
After a night of brooding, Cavendish emerged yesterday to tweet his frustration: “So yesterday’s race gets filed in my #worstdaysofmycareer list. Something was VERY wrong. No explanation, but I let down an incredible group.”
Bad days happen to the very best, but it is not in his nature, or the habit of Team Sky, to write off a disappointment as one of those things. Preparations will be reconsidered, numbers crunched, explanations sought.
Expectations may be revised a little, too, and perhaps that will be no bad thing in an Olympic year, when public and media excitement will not accurately reflect the immense challenge it will be for Cavendish to contend for gold in the road race.
On a hillside on the Ligurian coast of Italy came a reminder of a particular vulnerability and also the flip side of the high profile that comes from being the world’s fastest sprinter and pre-race favourite. Dozens of top riders failed to win the Milan-San Remo, but only Cavendish will be said (not least by himself) to have lost.
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It was always going to be a hard victory to deliver, but the world champion had not expected to fall out of contention fully 100 kilometres from the finish. He was delivered to the bottom of Le Manie — a climb neither long at 4.5½km (about 2.8 miles) nor dauntingly steep at an average gradient of 6.7 per cent — in the front 20, just as Team Sky had planned. But despite the best efforts of his colleagues, notably his minder, Bernie Eisel, Cavendish soon began to grimace as the race took off without him.
Liquigas and BMC exploited his suffering with an unrelenting pace at the front, justifying the headline in Gazzetta dello Sport on Saturday morning: “Everyone versus Cavendish”. But that did not explain the mystery of his lack of energy. An answer may not be forthcoming — perhaps it was just one of those days — but he will review his preparations, including whether he had lost a little too much weight too quickly.
At a lean 11st (about 70kg), Cavendish insisted he was in optimum shape, but it is a fine line between losing pounds and losing form. “It’s normal to struggle on the climb but it was a bit on the flat too for Cav,” Eisel said. “It was lack of energy, lack of horsepower.
“We don’t have to make a climber out of him. He won this race before. Just call it a shit day for him. He’s been climbing well enough.”
It is the nine laps of Box Hill, amounting to more than 1,000 metres of vertical climb, that pose such a challenge to Cavendish in the Olympic road race, which is why he will head to Surrey in late May on reconnaissance. There will be more delicate calibration of diet, weight and climbing form.
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On Saturday, Team Sky worked hard to bring Cavendish back into the race, closing the gap to the leading group to about 40 seconds on the dramatic coast road down to San Remo. But with 50km left the pursuit was called off as futile. Cavendish was typically quick to thank those who had worked so hard, with an appreciative hug for Mat Hayman. His team could not have given more.
With Cavendish gone, this 298km race threw up at least a dozen thrilling possibilities. Peter Sagan, Tom Boonen and Philippe Gilbert looked well placed for a late attack, at least until Gilbert fell on the Cipressa, the penultimate climb.
The Poggio, less than 10km from the finish, was always likely to be decisive and it was Vincenzo Nibali who went on the attack towards the top, a challenge quickly taken up by Simon Gerrans and Fabian Cancellara, who led that trio on the descent to San Remo.
As they hit the urban flat, Gerrans shrewdly tucked himself behind Cancellara and allowed the Swiss to lead almost to the line. With the pack closing in, Gerrans sprinted the final 100 metres for victory.
“There weren’t too many sprinters there at the end,” Dave Brailsford, the Team Sky principal, noted as a small consolation. But he, too, will want to know if anything can be gleaned for the challenges to come.
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Road to recovery
• An immediate chance to bounce back for Cavendish comes at the Ghent-Wevelgem sprinters’ classic on Sunday. He will then hope to win the Scheldeprijs over 200km for the fourth time on April 4.
• Cavendish and Bradley Wiggins are expected to team up for the first time in Sky colours at the Tour de Romandie from April 24 to 29.
• After the Tour de Suisse in June, Cavendish heads to the Tour de France, from June 30 to July 22. He is expected to pick off stages rather than compete for the green jersey. The Olympic road race on July 28.
Campaign goes Italian
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On Friday, Gazzetta dello Sport, the leading Italian sports newspaper which sponsors the Milan-San Remo race, launched The Times’s cycle safety campaign to the Italian public.
Almost every rider, including Mark Cavendish, had the “Cities fit for Cycling” campaign logo on their bike and The Times was invited to travel alongside the race in a VIP car on the gruelling climbs and dizzying descents of the coast roads around the Mediterranean.