Mark Cavendish rues 'mistake' after World Championship defeat
By Matt Westby
Last Updated: 16/10/16 5:10pm
Mark Cavendish admitted he made a tactical mistake after being beaten into second place by Peter Sagan in the men’s World Championship road race in Qatar.
Cavendish started his sprint to the finish line directly behind Sagan, who in turn was behind Tom Boonen and Giacomo Nizzolo.
While Sagan opted to pass the pair on the right, Cavendish decided to go to the left but then momentarily had to stop pedalling in order to get safely around Michael Matthews.
He still managed to pass Boonen but was unable to catch up to Sagan, who by now had raced clear to his second successive world title.
Cavendish said: "I wanted to be on Sagan's wheel and I was, and then all of a sudden the road was blocked. I tried to find a way through and with less than 100m to go, I had to stop pedalling and go around I think Michael Matthews, and then it was just too late.
"I got back on Tom Boonen, but it was too late to come back on Sagan.
"I'm a little bit disappointed. I feel like I lost gold rather than I won silver there, but that's how it is. We did all we can.
"It was my own fault. It wasn't my legs, and when it's not my legs, I'm a bit p****d because I made a mistake. It's not really nice to do that at a World Championships."
Only 21 riders contested the finish after Belgium accelerated in crosswinds with just over 170km of the 257.5km distance remaining and created splits in the peloton.
Cavendish, Luke Rowe and Adam Blythe were the only British riders who made it into the front group, and their ranks were later reduced to two when Rowe punctured and couldn't catch back up.
Cavendish added: "It was hard. The guys did a good job in the crosswinds at the beginning. We had Luke Rowe in the front group with us originally and he punctured, which was kind of a shame because we could have done with him, but Adam Blythe looked after me great."
Cavendish paid tribute to the new world champion.
He added: "At the end of the day, it's Peter Sagan, he wears that jersey with honour and he represents it well. I think I would be more disappointed if it was someone else."
