I CAN’T GO PELOTON FOREVER
Manx Missile’s final Tour of duty
CLASSY to the end, Mark Cavendish made it look as if the final curtain falling on his shoulders was the king’s robes.
Flanked by his wife, Peta, and their children, the greatest sprinter in Tour de France history confirmed this will be his last season in the peloton.
After 53 Grand Tour stage wins, a road race world champion’s rainbow jersey, an Olympic silver medal and two sprinters’ maillots verts on Le Tour, the Manx Missile – 5ft 7in of aerodynamic buckshot on a bike – is on the home stretch.
Fairytales are rarely delivered to order in sport, but if Cavendish can bow out with a 35th Tour de France stage victory in July – he currently shares the record with Belgian legend Eddy Merckx on 34 apiece – he would transcend mere eminence and acquire immortality.
He has already purveyed miracles in the saddle by rebounding from multiple crashes, illness and dumb selection to draw level with Merckx by winning four stages in 2021.
Now he is finally bowing to Father Time and fatherhood after celebrating his 38th birthday at the weekend, an age when most sprinters have long since lost their rocket thrust.
In an emotional statement on the final Giro d’Italia rest day, Cavendish said: “Cycling has been my life for over 25 years. It’s taught me so much about life – dedication, loyalty, sacrifice and perseverance – all important things to pass on now as a father.
“Today it’s my son Casper’s fifth birthday. It’s a rest day and I can spend that with my family. Now it’s important to be there for every birthday, every school concert.
“The bike’s given me opportunities to see the world, meet incredible people who are involved and not involved in the sport – a lot of whom I call friends.
“Right now there’s no need to talk about my short- and long-term plans – I’ll always be a cyclist. But for this final period I’d like to just enjoy doing what’s made me happy for the last 25 years, and that’s simply to race.”
Diminutive in height, perhaps, but Cavendish is a giant of sport. In a trade tarnished by doping, he would rather eat brake calipers than cave in to the weakness of drug cheats. And he has always shown cycling reverential respect – especially when the chips are down.
In 2018, on the day Geraint Thomas moved into the leader’s Yellow Jersey on the slopes of La Rosiere, Cavendish was eliminated from the race after trailing home more than an hour after his fellow Brit crossed the line.
Despite knowing he was miles outside the time cut, Cavendish insisted on finishing the stage, saying, “I never climb off – I had to honour the race.”
His invincible respect for cycling will be reciprocated by vast galleries at the roadside if, as expected, his Astana-Qazaqstan team affords him a farewell appearance on Le Tour, which starts in Bilbao on July 1.
It would be a sensational, but fitting, end to his career if Cavendish is first under the transponder on stage three in Bayonne, the Nogaro circuit 24 hours later, Place des Quinconces in Bordeaux on July 7 or on stage 11 to Moulins, which should all favour sprinters. He could not possibly bow out by winning that record Le Tour stage No.35... could he?