What’s subsequent for Sir Mark Cavendish? It’s a query biking followers have been asking themselves for years. The primary whispers got here in October 2020, when on a torrid time out at Gent-Wevelgem, the teary-eyed Manxman mentioned he had simply completed “maybe the final race of my profession”. Followers gasped. What is going to he do now?
Hindsight, after all, tells us it wasn’t his final race. There can be the comeback Tour de France in 2021, when he gained 4 phases and drew degree with Eddy Merckx’s all-time stage win document. Then got here the nationwide title he gained from the breakaway in 2022, the Giro d’Italia stage win in Rome in 2023, and the unlucky crash out of the Tour later that summer season. He was scheduled to retire on the finish of the season. Was that the final we’d see of Cavendish? What would come subsequent?
Once more, hindsight tells us there can be extra. One other yr with Astana-Qazaqstan, one other crack on the Tour, and one other stage win. Lastly, the outright document was his. Followers, content material with their hero’s achievements, might watch him cling his wheels up with satisfaction.
That second got here this November, on the Singapore Criterium, the place Cavendish sealed off his profession with a ceremonial victory. “I’m actually trying ahead to what the remainder of my profession holds, simply not on the bike,” he mentioned afterwards. And so, as soon as once more, the query is rippling round biking: what’s subsequent, Mark?
The reply, followers shall be glad to listen to, seems to stay throughout the sport. Requested about his retirement by The Guardian this month, Cavendish mentioned: “Clearly I’ve nonetheless acquired plenty of life left, and I nonetheless have to offer for my household, and so I feel that’s going to be in biking group administration. I do know the game and I understand how to construct a group and that’s the place I’m heading. It’s thrilling.”
It’s an concept the 39-year-old first revealed in October. Then chatting with Males’s Well being he defined he’d recognized for “the previous few years” what he wished to after his highway profession.
“I’ve set the wheels in movement,” he mentioned, pun probably unintended. “I wish to keep in administration within the sport, I nonetheless find it irresistible. I introduced lots of people to this group [Astana-Qazaqstan] over the previous two years, and I do know what it takes to achieve success. I’ve been constructing up to date I’m not racing.”
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It’s true that Cavendish has slowly been establishing an empire inside Astana-Qazaqstan. The primary trace of that was the signing of Vasilis Anastopoulos because the group’s head of efficiency in October 2023. The Greek coach had beforehand labored with Cavendish at Fast-Step, the place he was instrumental in guiding the sprinter to his comeback Tour in 2021.
Extra just lately, two of Cavendish’s shut associates have joined the group’s workers, each on his advice; former Hour File holder Alex Dowsett shall be a efficiency engineer from 2025, whereas Cavendish’s fellow Manxman Pete Kennaugh will tackle his first WorldTour gig as a sports activities director.
So does this imply Cavendish will assist handle the group in 2025? Effectively, most likely not.
Talking to Cyclingnews, Alexander Vinokourov, the supervisor of the now named XDS Astana, confirmed the Brit gained’t be a part of the group’s workers subsequent season.
“We’ve got a very good relationship with Mark, he was essential to us,” Vinokourov mentioned. “However generally it’s not simple to search out an actual function for somebody within the group and that was the case with Mark.
“Mark didn’t wish to simply be an envoy for the group, Mark wished to be a part of the decision-making construction, however that wasn’t doable but.”
But…?“We nonetheless have a very good relationship and we’ll see what occurs later. Possibly sooner or later,” the group boss added.
What this factors to is a possible job inside XDS Astana, however not subsequent season. It’s an answer that probably fits Cavendish, too. An unique member of the British Biking academy in 2004, the Manxman joined his first highway group in 2005, and raced for 19 relentless years. It is most likely time for a break.
So devoted was Cavendish’s strategy to biking, that his household life has been fleeting lately. His coach, Anastopoulos, as soon as joked that he had spent extra time with the sprinter than his personal spouse had. Now, Cavendish instructed The Guardian, he’s trying ahead to sharing the “lovely depth” of household life together with his spouse.
“Peta was with me in Singapore, and we have been in Japan the week earlier than. These two weeks are the longest we’ve ever spent collectively, simply us two, and I wish to do extra of that along with her,” he mentioned
His social calendar is beginning to refill for the yr, too. In January, he’ll journey to Australia to affix within the twenty fifth anniversary celebrations of the Santos Tour Down Underneath. He has additionally dedicated to working the Paris Marathon together with his brother in April. “I’ll all the time experience my bike, however I wish to run now,” he instructed Males’s Well being.
So, for those who’re hoping to see the Manx missile in a group automotive in 2025, do not maintain your breath. He is acquired a life outdoors of biking to get pleasure from first, one he now leads as a Knight Commander. Relaxation assured – if Vinokourov’s hints are something to go by – Cavendish could possibly be again within the thick of it in a not-so-distant future.
