Mark Cavendish’s win at the 2009 Milan–San Remo wasn’t just another sprint.

It was a masterclass in survival and pure belief. This is the story told by the riders, rivals, and mentors who lived it.

On the eve of the race

"Everybody thought I couldn’t climb,” Cavendish said later. “Tom Boonen said I couldn’t get over a railway bridge. I wanted them to keep thinking that. I needed them to keep thinking that”.

On the Poggio

The decisive climb is where sprinters are supposed to crack. Cavendish didn’t. “I still get goose bumps,” he said. “That’s one of my favourite days of my life. Every single thing went right.”

Haussler’s move

With the finish line approaching, Heinrich Haussler made his play. “He made the perfect move in the final moments… he left nothing to chance,” one commentator said.

Cavendish's sprint

His chances of victory seemingly in tatters, Cav launched. “When you win sprints you prove you’re a great sprinter. When you win a great one-day race, you’ve proved you’re a great rider.”

The victory

In the moment, Haussler thought he had it. “I’d gone full gas… I could hear the noise getting louder… then he was there. It still hurts.”

“There are three moments when I cried after winning,” Cavendish reflected. “When I won the World Championships on the track for the first time; my first stage in the Tour de France; and today. Everything had to go right on those days, and it did.”

The aftermath

For Haussler, second place never sat well. “Satisfied with second? Second place is the first loser.” he said. 

Years later, he admitted: “I can relive the final few hundred metres again and again in my mind… then the feeling of loss as I come second to Mark Cavendish.”

For Cavendish, it was more than just a win: “I have just won a Monument. It is my first Monument I have ever ridden. I took a lot of pleasure by winning it when a lot of people had written me off.”

While most of the peloton - and most of the commentariat - seemed to have written off his chances, one person always believed: his coach, and former Milan- Sanremo winner Erik Zabel: “That was the day everyone understood – Cav wasn’t just fast. He was tough enough for anything.”

Legacy

Britain’s first Monument since Tom Simpson. A photo finish decided by the width of a tyre. A sprinter proving he could survive the hardest climbs and still be the fastest man alive.

“Every fragment of time, every tiny movement, has an impact … Milan‑San Remo is the easiest of the classics to finish and the hardest to win.” Cavendish once said.

In 2009, he proved exactly why.

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