Tour de France 2017: Mark Cavendish readjusts expectations after narrowly winning his race against glandular fever

The world’s top sprinter, Mark Cavendish, says he is starting this year’s Tour de France with the goal of a single stage win, after a prolonged spell of glandular fever left the Briton wondering if he would even start the race at all.

The 32-year-old Dimension Data rider is currently the second most prolific stage winner in the Tour, with his total of 30 only four short of the all-time record held by Eddy Merckx.

But having just got over glandular fever in the nick of time for the 2017 Tour, with nearly three months of not racing as a result, Cavendish says he will need a large dose of luck in order even to take one win home.

“This year I’ll be happy to win a stage and I don’t think it’ll be a failure if I don’t,” an unusually relaxed-looking Cavendish told reporters at the Tour start in Düsseldorf yesterday.

Expectations that the Briton can win multiple stages in the Tour are now so high Cavendish pointed out wryly “I know sometimes it apparently signifies the end of my career if I only win three Tour stages, but I’m realistic about what I can do.”

Cavendish said as little as three weeks ago, his battle against glandular fever had taken so much out of him, “I really thought there was zero percent chance of making it here.”

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“Every minute of every day, though, was consumed with trying to get fit. I was trying to get as much race condition as possible”, with his first event back the low-key Tour of Slovenia in June.

"I didn’t have a deadline, but after racing Slovenia and the British Nationals, I knew at least I wouldn’t be dropped in the neutral zone.” - the section of road prior to each stage where riders softpedal to the official start.

As a sprinter, he says, there is a chance of taking a win even when form is not ideal and a race as big as the Tour makes the game worth the candle.

“If you get the right wheel and you get the right line, sometimes you can do it on luck. And there are a lot of sprint stages here this year.”

Other factors, such as Cavendish’s tendency to get stronger as Grand Tours progress, have also influenced in the decision to race. “Other sprinters tend to get more fatigued and this year I’m quite thankful I have that in my favour.”

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Until now, Cavendish has taken at least one win in every Tour he has ridden, barring his first Tour in 2007, and in 2014 when he crashed out on the first day.

“Usually I know that bar incident, I’m going to be the best here, but this year I know I haven’t done what I can do, through no fault of my own.”

“So I’m taking every day as it comes and at least I’m here, in the Tour."

On the plus side, too, Cavendish says that he is feeling “the most relaxed I’ve ever been starting a Tour.”

Given, as he says, “the first victory is just being here”, the pressure to rack up the victories is definitely off. But the interest in what a below-par Cavendish can still achieve is probably higher than ever.