Mark Cavendish’s announcement that he will retire after the 2023 season was one of the most emotional and contrasting days of the Manxman’s whole career. There was no adrenaline-fueled rush to the line, no celebrations and podium ceremonies, just the real emotions of him realising and revealing that his career is about to end.
After 25 years dedicated to racing, sprinting and winning, Cavendish has admitted that even he, so often and for so long unbeatable in sprints, has to turn the page and start a new chapter in his life.
"When you understand it’s not forever, it’s easier to enjoy every feeling this sport has to offer," Cavendish admitted.
Fortunately, he has his loving wife Peta and young family to help him make the transition to a life without sprinting adrenaline and sporting ambition. It should be a fun ride for all of them. Cavendish will fully realise there's more to life than bike racing, and Peta and his children will get to spend more quality time with their father. It will surely become the best moment of his life.
Cavendish apparently made the decision to retire in 2023 a few weeks ago but now it is public knowledge. There can surely be no turning back, no second thoughts, no temptation to go on for one more year, to chase one more sprint win. The end of his 17-year professional career is confirmed, with perhaps the final stage of the Tour de France on the Champs-Élysées or the Tour of Britain will be the final day of racing and his final sprint.
I’ve followed and reported on much of Cavendish’s professional career for Cycling Weekly and then Cyclingnews.com. There have been highs and lows, emotions and arguments but Cavendish’s career has been a hell of a journey. I feel privileged to have witnessed so much of it.
It was fascinating to see Cavendish transform from what he himself described as a ‘fat banker’ from the Isle of Man into a successful pro cyclist in the Great Britain Academy under Rod Ellingworth’s discipline and encouragement, to then see him emerge at the Tour of Britain in 2005 and 2006 with T-Mobile, a cheeky Manx kid showing his speed and hunger for success against far older rivals.
His 2007 Tour de France debut in London was another step up and fueled his dreams of winning sprints in the biggest race in the world. He went on to win 34 of them, often taking three or four per Tour in his peak years between 2009 and 2012, dominating the first part of the Tour like few had done before him. Winning in Mont-Saint-Michel in 2016 also gave him a yellow jersey to add to his two green points jerseys.
I was fortunate to witness Cavendish win Milan-San Remo in 2009 at his first attempt. He had hinted to me that he was on great form and revealed how he had hidden it from his rivals. I woke up in Milan sensing victory would be his and he took it with determination, surviving the Cipressa and Poggio and then desperately sprinting after Heinrich Haussler to win with a bike throw. It was a perfect way for Cavendish to win La Primavera, the sprinter’s Classic.
Of course there were also set-backs, defeats and disappointment but I was convinced, like him, that Cavendish would come back and win again.
Poorly-diagnosed mononucleosis cost him almost three years of his career between 2017 and 2019 but he never thought of throwing in the towel. When Bahrain dropped him, he hustled a way back with Patrick Lefevere on a low contract and had the hunger to win four stages in the 2021 Tour de France. It was a comeback that only he could have pulled off.
Now Cavendish knows he only has a few more months left to race. Time to win a final again is running out but the pressure is now off his shoulders, giving clarity of mind and purpose.
His palmares is so rich and so prestigious that Cavendish no longer needs to prove anything to anyone, he has earned the right to enjoy and savour his final months and farewell. He has already equalised Eddy Merckx with a Tour de France 34-stage-win record, and is happy to be friends with the Cannibal rather than him in a simple statistic.
Many people think he will never win again at the Tour de France and have written him off. How wrong they are. For one last time, we should savour him trying to prove people wrong yet again and enjoy Cavendish’s last dance and perhaps one last sprint victory.
