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 day trip 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 received 4 phases and drew stage with Eddy Merckx’s all-time stage win document. Then got here the nationwide title he received 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 time. 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 12 months 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, may watch him cling his wheels up with pleasure.
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 might 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 received loads of life left, and I nonetheless have to supply for my household, and so I feel that’s going to be in biking crew administration. I do know the game and I understand how to construct a crew and that’s the place I’m heading. It’s thrilling.”
It’s an thought the 39-year-old first revealed in October. Then chatting with Males’s Well being he defined he’d identified for “the previous few years” what he wished to after his street profession.
“I’ve set the wheels in movement,” he mentioned, pun seemingly unintended. “I wish to keep in administration within the sport, I nonetheless find it irresistible. I introduced lots of people to this crew [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.”
The most recent race content material, interviews, options, critiques and professional shopping for guides, direct to your inbox!
(Picture credit score: Getty Pictures)
It’s true that Cavendish has slowly been setting up an empire inside Astana-Qazaqstan. The primary trace of that was the signing of Vasilis Anastopoulos because the crew’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 pals have joined the crew’s employees, each on his advice; former Hour Document holder Alex Dowsett might 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 crew in 2025? Nicely, most likely not.
Chatting with Cyclingnews, Alexander Vinokourov, the supervisor of the now named XDS Astana, confirmed the Brit received’t be a part of the crew’s employees subsequent season.
“We now have an excellent relationship with Mark, he was essential to us,” Vinokourov mentioned. “However typically it’s not simple to seek out an actual position for somebody within the crew and that was the case with Mark.
“Mark didn’t wish to simply be an envoy for the crew, Mark wished to be a part of the decision-making construction, however that wasn’t attainable but.”
But…?“We nonetheless have an excellent relationship and we’ll see what occurs later. Perhaps sooner or later,” the crew boss added.
What this factors to is a possible job inside XDS Astana, however not subsequent season. It’s an answer that seemingly fits Cavendish, too. An unique member of the British Biking academy in 2004, the Manxman joined his first street crew in 2005, and raced for 19 relentless years. It is most likely time for a break.
So devoted was Cavendish’s method to biking, that his household life has been fleeting in recent times. 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 “stunning depth” of household life along with his spouse.
“Peta was with me in Singapore, and we had 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 replenish for the 12 months, too. In January, he’ll journey to Australia to affix within the twenty fifth anniversary celebrations of the Santos Tour Down Beneath. He has additionally dedicated to working the Paris Marathon along with his brother in April. “I’ll at all times trip 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 crew automobile in 2025, do not maintain your breath. He is received 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.
