Mark Cavendish is focused on achieving more than just one more Tour de France stage win during 2023. According to the Times, he explains that he is still racing at age 37 simply because he loves racing and because he has a new opportunity in Astana Kazakstan that is free from the pressures and expectations of the past. [The goal is to win. Before leaving for the Middle East to make his season debut at the Tour of Oman, Cavendish said in a lengthy interview with The Times (opens in new tab), "The goal is to win."

"The Tour de France has always been at the center of my career, and I know from the outside (what people will say). I'm getting to the point where I can stand on my own [from Merckx]. One more win in the Tour is everything for everyone, but for me it's not about one win, it's about two wins, three wins, whatever."

"For me it's very simple. I can keep riding my bike, I can keep winning. I love racing. I love racing. I don't enjoy racing anymore, but I still love it."

The Times revealed that a Netflix documentary is in the works about Cavendish's career, which began in 2005. There is much to cover, including his development on and off the British track team, his Tour de France debut in London in 2007, his victory in Milan-San Remo in 2009, his world title in Copenhagen in 2011, and of course his 34 stage wins in the Tour de France.

Cavendish also faced and overcame major challenges, including the Epstein-Barr virus and clinical depression, during the toughest period of his career from 2017 to 2020. 2021 Tour de France, led by Patrick Lefebvre. He won four races with the Quick-Step team, but was prevented from competing in the 2022 Tour and was subsequently fired.

He was set to lead the French B&B Hotels team in 2023, but the project collapsed due to lack of sponsorship. A sudden phone call from Astana Kazakstan director Alexander Vinokurov offered him an interesting lifeline and a new chapter in his career.

Cavendish seems refreshed by Vinokurov's low-pressure approach, and despite a public trial in England that revived the trauma of a knife robbery at Cavendish's parents' house in 2021, the upcoming season He is motivated for the future.

"I feel like I've been going through the hoops for years," Cavendish said of the recent season.

"First of all, during the Dimension Data days, I was thrown under the bus because of it, even though it was the team's fault that I got sick. That was painful. In Bahrain, even Quickstep was not prepared or goal-setting. This is the first time I can set a goal and work towards it instead of proving myself to get a chance."

Cavendish finally signed with Astana Kazakstan in early January after already attending training camp.

The team will support Cavendish's sprint with Cies Bol as lead-out man and former sprinter and Champs-Elysées stage winner Stefano Zanini as the team's sprint délecteur sportif.

"I have been on teams where I was idle. I feel isolated. I feel pressure. I've also been on teams where I was kicked, not physically, but kicked. Here I feel respected for what I have achieved, what I can achieve, and as a human being," Cavendish said of his decision to move to Astana Kazakstan.

"Vino called me and said, 'What do you think, we can't pay you like B&B, but there is no pressure to come here.'"

"We talked about profits, but we also talked about what would happen if I didn't make it, and vice versa. He said, 'If I don't win, I won't win, but I'm going to keep trying.' For a long time, a really long time, no one talked to me like that.

"So it was nice to talk to Vino. I felt like I didn't have to justify my career or my age. It's about 'can I win' and 'can I be happy'. There is pressure associated with his name, and there is also the commercial aspect.

Vinokourov carries his own baggage as a rider from the darkest blood doping era in cycling in the 1990s, but Cavendish is only interested in what he perceives about the current team culture.

"All I've seen is respect, not in the sense of holding you high, but in the sense that you are a person, not a commodity," he said.