A new Netflix documentary chronicles the ups and downs of Mark Cavendish's remarkable career. Photo: Reuters/Benoît Tessier
There are some incredibly heavy moments in the new Netflix film about Mark Cavendish, but perhaps the strongest comes in the middle, when we see the cyclist at his very bottom.
Locked at his mother's house on the Isle of Man sometime in early 2019, Cavendish's cycling career effectively ended. He didn't win a meaningful race for almost three years as injuries and illness — the debilitating Epstein-Barr virus — took their toll.
Cavendish has developed an eating disorder, is diagnosed with clinical depression, and is considered suicidal by his own physician. His wife Peta admits she no longer recognizes the iconic character she married in 2013.
“I didn’t know that version of him at all,” she tells the creators of Mark Cavendish. : Never Enough in the most emotional scenes of the 90-minute film. «But I slept in the same bed with him.»
It is in this vortex that the Cavendish psychologist, Dr. David Spindler, gets caught. He is met at the airport by the racer's mother, who takes Spindler to her home, where they find Cavendish regurgitating the contents of yesterday's binge.
Spindler admits he had no real expectations by this point. correcting your patient. «I was trying to make sure the situation wasn't so dire that I would have to call someone to put him in the hospital,» he says bluntly.
For the next 10 days, while Cavendish is training, Spindler rides beside him on a scooter in an attempt to get him to open up. Eventually, one day, Cavendish stops at a field and explains that this is where he first started racing his bike when he was about eight years old. The father took him. Cavendish's parents soon divorced. This is the moment of the light bulb. Spindler manages to get along with the boy who rode the bike out of pure love for him, because it gave him a «feeling of freedom».
This is the start of a long road to recovery. A road that takes two more years and a period of forced isolation with his family during the Covid pandemic as Cavendish experiences the simple joys of playing with his children. A journey that will culminate in an extraordinary comeback tour in 2021 when Cavendish wins four stages and the green jersey, 10 years after he last won it.
A new documentary shows how Cavendish battled depression and an eating disorder. Photo: Shutterstock/Alex Whitehead
A very strong argument could be made that Cavendish is Britain's greatest active sportsman. This may sound like hyperbole. Sir Andy Murray? Sir Lewis Hamilton? But consider what he has done for cycling without being honored by Sir Chris Hoy, Sir Bradley Wiggins, Sir Jason Kenny and Dame Laura Kenny (surely not for long?).
In one of the most physically and mentally demanding sports, Cavendish has become the undisputed greatest sprinter cycling has ever known. There was a period when you almost certainly knew that if Cavendish was in a group sprint, he would win it.
From 2007 to 2015, he had 133 victories, including the 2011 world title in Copenhagen, stages all three Grand Tours and winning Milan-San Remo in 2009. The mind is incomprehensible.
Then he lost. completely within five years or so, bottoming out as brutally depicted in the movie before bouncing back to the top again after everyone wrote it off. It takes some effort.
Just ask Rod Ellingworth, the coach who took on Cavendish as the brash British Cycling academy rider who oversaw his 2011 World Championship win, who was waiting for him when he missed the 2018 Tour time cut instead of celebrating with Geraint Thomas, who had just taken the yellow jersey. For Ellingworth, durability and versatility are key.
“Year after year, people underestimate what it takes; take care of yourself, deal with injuries, you have to be so consistent,” he told me on a recent tour. the greatest sprinter in the history of cycling. Photo: Shutterstock/Alex Whitehead
«Cav» adapted too. From a massive exit on [team] HTC days to a smaller exit on Team Sky days and no exit at all with Astana. Tactically and technically, he is the best sprinter the sport has ever seen.»
Just ask Marcel Kittel, Cavendish's perennial rival from Germany, who made the decision to retire in 2019 because he «lost all motivation keep torturing yourself on the bike.» Kittel says that it was Cavendish's desire to keep moving forward, to keep training, that made him different.
“In modern cycling, to achieve what he has already achieved is an outstanding achievement,” said Kittel. “He was already a legend. But I think what really makes Kav so great is his motivation. He has this drive, this love for the sport. His fire still burns very high. That's why he's still here, still on the Tour. And the reason why he was able to get through those difficult years.”
This is the fire that shines in the Netflix movie. It is raw and unadorned, but at the same time brilliantly made and clearly intended to show what an outstanding character and athlete Cavendish is.
However, it never passes into hagiography. Indeed, the weaknesses of Cavendish as a person are visible to everyone. We see the selfishness and purposefulness inherent in serial winners. We see a frenzied temper (team leaders and journalists take the blows). We see a huge chip on his shoulder. Even Peta, his biggest supporter, admits that her husband can be «a bit of an asshole.» But we also see his huge heart, his generosity to his teammates, his dedication. And their loyalty in return. This is just a brilliant portrait of a brilliant athlete.
Cavendish with wife Peta and daughter this year in Italy. : AP/Antonio Calanni
He also skillfully leaves the ending open. Starting with excellent archival footage of the brash young Cavendish competing in the Scottish Cycling League in 1996, the film ends with him standing on the Champs Elysees in 2021, his family around him, his young son Casper desperately trying to get his way. attention. Only Cavendish is deep in thought, no doubt reflecting on his failure to win the final group sprint.
Incidentally, a victory that would allow him to overtake Eddy Merckx and become the sole owner of a record that does not dare to name her (Cavendish again emphasizes in the film that the title of «the most successful stage winner of the Tour of all time» is just a dream. Media , it's not something he's ever aspired to himself, but there's no doubt that it will play a major role in whether he decides to reverse his decision to retire at the end of this season and continue for another year).
«I will try to win as long as I think I can win,» says Cavendish.
Cavendish won a stage of the Giro d'Italia in May of this year. Photo: Tim de Waele/Getty Images
This is an appropriate quote to end with. It was Cavendish's refusal to come to terms with the fact that he could no longer win that meant that he continued to work all these years, despite Epstein-Barr, despite accidents, despite clinical depression. It was his rage against the dying of the light that caused his glorious return in 2021; thanks to this, he was in good enough shape to win a stage of the Giro d'Italia this year, even without losing to his team from Astana; this would undoubtedly have given him a record win at the 35th stage of the Tour in Bordeaux last month, had he not suffered a mechanical injury.
This is what makes him one of the greatest Britons. If not the greatest, then certainly the most convincing.
Kav' has his heart on his sleeve and sometimes that gets you into trouble,” Ellingworth concluded when we spoke last month.
“We definitely had our ups and downs from day one. Just because he has such a strong character. But there was always something in him. I remember seeing him compete in national track and field championships when he was still a junior, but raced with seniors. He had a major accident but got up and tried to continue the race. I was impressed with this. He was rough, but so passionate.
“That never changed. As is his love of cycling. He wouldn't have done it all these years later if he didn't like it.»
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