Cycling: The Kingmakers

Chief Sports Writer

Saturday 28 July 2012

T HE Champs d'Elysee in Paris has been mischievously renamed Le Promenade des Anglais by some after the victory stroll of Bradley Wiggins in the Tour de France on Sunday.

Mark Cavendish will be supported by a stellar team including Scotland's David Millar

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Hugh MacDonald

This morning a nation hopes that London will christen a famous stretch of tarmac as the Golden Mall.

Mark Cavendish, the most explosive cyclist of his generation, dreams of powering down the straight and taking gold in the cycling road race in the shadow of Buckingham Palace. He will be helped by a powerful gang. Wiggins, Chris Froome, Ian Stannard and David Millar will seek to set Cavendish up for a sprint finish on The Mall after a course that may not be helpful to the Englishman's ambitions, but after a race he and his mates will seek to dominate by means of strategy and sheer class.

Wiggins, almost casually, has described this team as the strongest ever. It may be restricted in quantity but not in quality: Wiggins is a Tour de France champion, Froome almost certainly can be, Stannard is no ordinary domestique and Millar brings a brain as well as brawn to the contest.Cavendish, who has won 23 Tour de France stages, has singled out Millar for a key role in the 250-kilometre course. The 27-year-old Englishman said of the Scot who will be team captain today: "He is able to stay calm and analyse situations really well. He knows this sport and he's not scared to call shots. He doesn't hesitate, and he knows how to read a race and is willing to take the responsibility. He's strong, knows how to ride for a sprint, how to climb and handle all types of terrain."The race starts in The Mall and after a 71-kilometre point-to-point distance the riders will have to make nine laps of a 15.9km circuit at Box Hill before heading 40 kilometres back to The Mall for the finish.Team GB has to keep Cavendish in touch for the mad dash to the line. The strategy will be for Cavendish to be at the front of the pack each time the race reaches Box Hill. On the ascent, Cavendish will drift back but he will be taken to the front again and again by his team-mates as the peloton regroups for another slog to the summit.The rider from the Isle of Man admits he has been nervous in the approach to what could be a momentous afternoon for him, but he is also confident. "We're trained to be able to deal with those nerves and you've got to put it to bed, all the emotions. As unromantic as it sounds, we've got a process which we have to adhere to. It's a process that we know if we commit to 100% and execute well, we should be in with the best chance of winning."The major rivals to Cavendish should be Andre Greipel of Germany and Tyler Farrar of the USA. The precocious Peter Sagan, 22, of Slovakia, has the talent to be a threat, but he is racing without team-mates. The Australians, Cadel Evans and Simon Gerrans, are tough and dangerous, as are the Belgian duo of Tom Boonen and Phillipe Gilbert. However, they all know that the sting must be taken from Cavendish before the Englishman can sprint to gold. If Cavendish is at the front, and relatively fresh, The Mall could witness an astonishing victory parade in front of a home crowd.Boonen said: "In a bunch sprint Cavendish is almost invincible at the moment. If he is capable of surviving the Box Hill circuit, which I think he is, it will be very hard to beat him."Gilbert added: "We are all beaten if we finish at the sprint with Cavendish. So we have to try to attack and make it the hardest possible race."Gerrans hinted that he may try to attack and break away on Box Hill, saying: "As soon as you get to the circuit, I think the race is going to be on, because it will be important to make the race quite selective from early on."It is up to Millar to ensure that Cavendish is in prime position as the race enters the final stages this afternoon. Millar, who is riding in his first Olympics since the 2000 Games in Sydney, served a drug ban between 2004 and 2006 and is an intriguing figure in the race. He is racing today for no reason other than to help a mate and is prepared to endure the "drug cheat" jibes that have been made all week.He will be central to the strategy of keeping Cavendish in touch on the climbs of Box Hill. The 35-year-old, who describes himself as an ex-doper, said of the team strategy: "If it goes to plan it will be one of the biggest performances we've ever seen in road racing. It doesn't matter if we're catching people with 500 metres to go, as long as we're there with Mark to do that, so that he can do his sprint."That dash will take place in front of Buckingham Palace, but for Cavendish the finish has a more prosaic description. He said: "Sorry to say but it's not as romantic as it sounds. It's a straight, then a right-left, then a slight downhill, bearing left, wide finish."If all goes to plan, Cavendish will unleash his power after the peloton passes the Queen Victoria Memorial. But he will have had to have survived the rigours of Box Hill.The Englishman, who has lost 9lbs to improve his climbing ability, said: "If I didn't have a team here, there's no way I could say I'll get over Box Hill nine times alone. It's not just Box Hill, it's everything after it. I need four of the best bike riders in the world to be able to do that. Luckily I've got four of the strongest bike riders in the world around me."

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