On a media day organised to discuss his prospects for the Tour de France, Mark Cavendish was travelling in a taxi from Soho to Regent’s Park for a photo-shoot when he was alerted suddenly by the driver’s recklessness. “Watch out for the cyclist,” the dismayed Manxman said. “Who do you think you are? Lance Armstrong?” replied the driver, unaware of his passenger’s identity.

Cavendish might have answered that, although not quite in Armstrong's league, he is fairly talented on two wheels, having won four stages of the Tour last year and that he will begin this year’s race, which starts in Monaco tomorrow, as the leading candidate to win the green jersey for the best sprinter.

Instead, though, he chose not to embarrass the chauffeur. “No, but Lance is a good friend of mine,” the 24-year-old said of the greatest cyclist who ever lived.

According to those close to both men, the friendship began after last year’s Tour when the then-retired American sought to congratulate the British rider for his performance and continued once the American recognised in Cavendish a kindred spirit. Now Armstrong has returned to the circuit, they see each other regularly and remain in contact outside of the big races.

“They have a lot in common and I think Armstrong saw in Cavendish somebody that he understood,” said Brian Holm, the sporting director of Team Columbia-HTC, the team for which Cavendish rides. “Like Armstrong, Mark has a gift, and also a single-mindedness and determination that you do not see very often.

“I’ve been in professional cycling for 20 years and I’ve seen a lot of good riders but Mark has something special. He reminds me of Lance when he was his age and first coming on to the scene. Their personalities are similar; both men stand out. There is no doubt Mark can be the best sprinter of his generation.”

Armstrong initiated the relationship when he texted George Hincapié, once the seven-time Tour winner’s most trusted domestique, who now often has to perform a similar role for Cavendish with Columbia-HTC. Armstrong said to pass on his compliments as long as the Briton “wasn’t a dickhead”.

With Armstrong reassured about Cavendish’s personality, the men met for the first time at the Tour of California in September, the second race of the Texan’s comeback. The most memorable piece of advice that Armstrong passed on then alluded to Cavendish’s earning potential. “Don’t waste your money,” he said.

Since then they have discussed among other subjects whether Cavendish should join the road-race team being set up by Dave Brailsford, the performance director of British Cycling. With Armstrong’s approval, it seems, Cavendish will not abandon his team-mates for the lure of an almost certainly fatter paycheck.

“I don’t think I would have had this success at another team,” he said. “I started my career here, I’m still young and I’m happy where I am. As long as I’m enjoying it with Columbia-HTC and being successful, then I’m going to stay.”

Although the bookmakers have installed him as clear favourite to win the green jersey, Cavendish insists it is not his priority this year. Instead he hopes to rack up as many victories as possible, having tailored his training regime over the winter to ensure that he has the stamina to complete the Tour, unlike last year when he quit before the Alps to prepare for the Olympics.

That mission will require him to outwit a peloton that will identify him from the outset as the principal threat in a sprint, a status that Cavendish discovered to his cost in the first stage of this year’s Giro d’Italia when Alessandro Petacchi successfully tailored his tactics specifically to outsprint the British rider.

Should he win or lose, though, Cavendish is unlikely to respond with similar restraint to that with which he greeted the taxi driver’s remark. Known to berate staff and team-mates when he feels they have let him down, he admitted in his recently published autobiography that he also shares with Armstrong a “fiery temperament”.

“I’m an emotional, straightforward guy and I say what I think,” he said. “I can come across as arrogant but it’s a belief in what I know I can achieve. When I’m put in the best position I know that, nine times out of ten, I’ll be first across the line.” Including, he hopes, when the peloton approaches the Champs-Élysées on the Tour’s final stage.

“My aim is to carry on winning and to get to Paris,” he said. “Hopefully, then, the green jersey will look after itself.”

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