Having his last season remembered rather for what he had lost than for no less than twenty stage victories, Mark Cavendish and Omega Pharma-Quick Step significantly changed Manxman’s schedule for 2014 to increase his chances of succeeding in, very close to his heart, the Tour the France 101st edition.

 

Thus, British sprinter recorded a very slow start to the season with no major goals defined until July, but still hopes to take advantage of familiar surroundings while facing his main opponents in Tirreno-Adriatico and to get possibly well prepared for the target that suddenly arose on his way, Milano-Sanremo.

 

"I'm not on top form. I started the season pretty steady," Cavendish admitted.

 

"I started at full gas last year and come the Tour de France I was on my knees. I and the team wanted to start things easier this year and go to races without any real pressure. I've actually been able to train well at home because I haven't been recovering from races. I'm actually going better than I imagined. I'm obviously missing that little bit of top end but July is still a long way out."

 

At the Tirreno-Adriatico pre-race press conference Cavendish admitted his current disposition cannot be compared to his main opponents’, Marcel Kittel (Giant-Shimano) and Andre Greipel (Lotto-Belisol), due to a low-key start to the season and initial plan to skip a slightly too mountainous Milano-Sanremo edition.

As the route of la Classicissima, an event won by the Manxman in 2009, has been eventually changed in favour of sprinters, the Omega Pharma-Quick Step rider decided to change his racing schedule and participate in Milano-Sanremo as well as in the Tirreno-Adriatico as a traditional preparation event.

 

"I've ridden every edition of Tirreno-Adriatico since 2008," Cavendish explains, often answering questions in Italian and then translating his own words into English.

 

"I like it. I have a place in Tuscany and last year I came here (to the Tuscan coast) after the Tour de France and stayed near here. I know these roads well. It's a nice race. When Milan-San Remo is a big goal, Italian racing is important preparation and Tirreno-Adriatico provides that. All the Classics riders and teams want to prepare their form and so always have strong teams here."

 

"I think knowing the roads gives me an advantage. It means you know where to be in front and know what will happen."

 

Cavendish admitted that Milano-Sanremo became his big objective following the route’s change, as it might be the last genuine opportunity for sprinters to excel in la Primavera.

 

Tirreno-Adriatico, however, will be treated exclusively as a preparation event and even though the British sprinter, supported by his experienced lead-out men, won’t throw in the towel, there is no particular pressure to chase stage victories as the Belgian team is fully focused on general classification with Michał Kwiatkowski and Rigoberto Uran.

 

"As a team, Omega Pharma-Quick Step is targeting the GC. We can win the team time trial, Kwiatkowski has shown he's in incredible form and we've got Rigoberto Uran here too. We'll try and pick up the sprints early on but the main objective is the overall. There's not much pressure on me but its nice to come here and be with the team that I'll be racing with for the majority of the year: I've got Petacchi and Renshaw here and we've got a strong team. I'm looking forward to the week of racing."

 

The team time trial of the Tirreno-Adriatico 2013 edition was the last among three stages won by Cavendish in the Race of the Two Seas. This year Omega Pharma-Quick Step is again expected to take all the spoils on Wednesday’s flat 18.5km route, with the likes of Tony Martin, Michał Kwiatkowski or Matteo Trentin in their roster, but sprinter refused to make any prediction concerning the top tree teams of the TTT.

 

"A lot of teams finished very close last year and it's nice to start off with a TTT, it's good for the spectators and is good for the sprinters," Cavendish said.

 

The Manxman pointed out, however, that the team will target a victory in today’s TTT as the possible time advantage put on other contenders would significantly boost their GC ambitions.

 

"If you win it, it can make a difference for the overall race and it gives you a cushion of time you can use to control the racing in the following stages."

 

During the press-conference Cavendish also officially confirmed his participation in the Milano-Sanremo coming edition and pointed out that after removing la Pompeiana climb the route became even easier than the one on which he excelled in 2009, in his first ever attempt.

 

"For sure I'm happy. Before I didn’t want to do Milan-San Remo. Now for sure I do. It (the route) is even easier than when I won. It’s the course from the last 50 years where I saw my idols win it," he said.

 

"If I didn't ride it, I'd regret it," he said. "We've got a strong team. Tom (Boonen) has been aiming for Milan-San Remo and so we'll ride it and see what happens. We have other guys and ways to attack the race. I’m happy to go and try. There’s no pressure to win."