Tour de France organiser wants Mark Cavendish to win first stage in Corsica "It's one of the most iconic symbols in the world of sport," Cavendish said. To be able to wear that for at least a day in your life, it's a thing to make any rider's career, a thing you dream about. It would be beautiful. Cavendish is in the sort of coruscating form which, in May, saw him negotiate the crash-littered opening stage of the Giro d'Italia in Naples to triumph and then proceed to be untouchable in all four of his other sprints. Last weekend, he ensured he would start the Tour in the national road race champion's jersey after triumphing in Glasgow, leaving this traditionally slow Grand Tour starter promising that, just as in Naples, he had tailored his training to hit the ground sprinting like a demon. His concern, apart from an army of sprinters a cut above the Giro cast, is the narrow, twisty N198 that wends up Corsica's eastern coast. "If I'm truthful, I think it will be dangerous," he warned. At the start, the peloton's nervous and there's always a few crashes. But on these narrow roads when everyone's fresh and going for it, I think we're likely to see some accidents. I hope everybody stays safe but unfortunately, with a lot at stake, there'll be a lot of teams trying to press at the front. Prudhomme's admiration for Cavendish is fuelled by how he cherishes cycling's traditions. We talked in Oman last year. Mark had won 20 Tour stages and I asked if he knew of André Darrigade, who rode in the 50s and 60s," recalled Prudhomme. "He responded: "Yes, I know. He was a French rider who won 22 Tour stages. And André Leducq, in the 1930s, won 25. And Bernard Hinault 28. And Eddy Merckx 34! It was great to see a champion of today respecting a champion of the past. Prudhomme is not sure whether Merckx's landmark will survive with Cavendish already on 23 wins. Hinault is sure it will go. Cavendish, though, just shrugs: "Whoever's won however much, it's irrelevant." Treat that with a pinch of salt. Moments later, the winning machine was outlining what keeps driving him. I want to keep making history. To that end, how about starting a Tour in yellow and ending it in green as points winner, after prevailing for a fifth successive year in Paris on the Champs Élysées in a unique floodlit evening finish three weeks hence? Yet to regain the green jersey he won in 2011 - "the biggest goal for me every year" - he must overcome the extraordinary Slovakian reigning champion, Peter Sagan, the dazzling all-rounder Cavendish describes as "a once-in-a-generation cyclist," the rider who could protect the yellow over the three Corsican stages. Put nothing past Cav, though. He was asked if he had been timed to ascertain if he was sprinting faster than ever before. "I don't give a ---- as long as I'm winning more," he said. It's not a line on the graph that matters. It's the finish line, isn't it?