A Bigger Satisfaction - Cavendish

05 May 2015 11:42

Mark Cavendish has said that he takes more satisfaction from the way his team performed than his victory on the seventh stage of the 51st Presidential Tour Of Turkey.

Cavendish won for a third time in this race when he crossed the line first in Izmir and told the Tour Of Turkey Press Office: "It was the easiest win of the three so far in terms of the actual sprint, probably, because a lot of the pure sprinters weren't there.

"We knew that would be the case. But still, in my career, some teams don’t give me the credit for how well I climb.MTN said: "We’re going to go hard," and I said: "You better make it count," because with the team I had, I was always going to get back in.

"The gap was a little bigger than we thought, but it was superb how well my team brought me back. And then they switched into lead-out mode. I said to Mark Renshaw, "Try to get the two Lampre riders between you and Tom because it will leave them exposed early." He just missed them but I didn’t.

"It was pretty straightforward in the end. I never went over the limit today. we rode at our own pace on the climb, always knowing that we’d get back without over-exerting ourselves.

"Actually we were humming and hawing about the stage because we didn't know the climb. I said, ‘Let’s give it a crack.’ The biggest thing I’ll take away is the way the team stayed together, straight away working. That’s a bigger satisfaction than crossing the line first."

Second placed Andrea Piechele (Bardiani-CSF) told the Tour Of Turkey press office: It's a good result, and the best I could get against Cavendish. I'm very satisfied, also because it's one of my best results of the season so far. I was already riding well in the previous stages but I couldn't find a way through. I had lost the habit of sprinting. But today, I crossed the line among the best. I recovered on the descent and I had a clear head, so I found Cavendish's wheel. Colbrelli was up there with me, on my wheel, but with 1.5 km to go, we lost each other and I wasn't going to lose Cavendish's slipstream."

Source: DSG