Tour de France: Mark Cavendish has been one of the most successful sprinters for the last two seasons but he knew a Tour victory was a requirement if he was to be considered part of the elite.
"I've been one of the best sprinters for the last couple of years but it's still in the British mentality that they don't always appreciate how good you are," he said today. "I'm a big sprinter but I knew you cannot call yourself a great sprinter before you win a Tour stage."
"It was my aim to come here and correct that," he said.
It is mission accomplished for the young Manx, who overpowered the rest of the bunch in the longest stage of this Tour in Chateauroux today.
Beating three-times world champion Oscar Freire and experienced German Erik Zabel, a rider with 148 wins behind him was in itself an achievement. To do it in the world's greatest cycling race was something else.
"The Tour is the only race that matters when you're a bike fan. It was the only one I was watching as a kid," Cavendish, 22, said. As a mark of respect for the event, he means to make it all the way to Paris after giving up last year a week into his first Tour.
"It is the Tour de France. It would not be fair on organisers or on the team to quit. I hope to make it to Paris but maybe I won't be good enough in the mountains and not be able to finish within the time limits," Cavendish, who has two Giro stage
victories to his name, said.
There might be a temptation for Cavendish to take an early break from the Tour with the Olympics in sight and the prospect of winning a gold medal in the Madison, an event in which he was twice world champion.
"There are three-and-a-half weeks between the Tour and the Olympics and I think I'll have time enough to recuperate," he said.
But he refused to be drawn into comparisons between Tour and Olympic glory: "To win a Tour stage is probably more difficult but they are both events in which I want to cross the line first."