There’s a brand new query that’s making Sir Mark Cavendish wince.
For the final two years, his media interviews have been all concerning the Tour de France – extra particularly, breaking the all-time stage win document. The obvious query was at all times the one journalists had been afraid to ask.
I bear in mind in 2023, at his pre-race press convention in Bilbao, it wasn’t till the ultimate second that someone plucked up the braveness to ask Cavendish what it could imply to him to win a thirty fifth stage. The query was adopted by 30 seconds of uncomfortable, and barely humorous, silence. Then got here the response: “Truthfully, I don’t know.”
It was the same story earlier than the race this yr. This time, and it’s with delight that I say this, I used to be on the opposite finish of a pensive Cavendish pause. In a crowded room on the outskirts of Florence, I waited 20 seconds for his ideas on the legacy he’d like to depart in biking. “I don’t actually know,” had been his phrases that broke the silence.
I sympathise with Cavendish. I can think about it’s excruciating to be requested the identical questions, every single day, extra occasions than you may rely on each palms. Now, there’s a brand new one he’s sick of. It’s easy and to the purpose – solely two phrases, actually: “What’s subsequent?”
The query took prominence effectively earlier than he bowed out with victory at his closing race eventually weekend’s Singapore Criterium. For months now, individuals have been asking the Brit about his life past sprinting, the subsequent steps in his profession. We’re determined to know. At present, he’s but to offer a concrete reply.
This week on social media, Cavendish mocked the two-word query, posing it backwards and forwards to Valtteri Bottas, himself additionally at a crossroads. (For the uninitiated, Bottas is an F1 driver and biking lover – a bit like how Gareth Bale was an expert footballer, however most well-liked enjoying golf. He lately introduced he’s leaving his present crew.)
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The change goes like this: “What’s subsequent?” Bottas serves to Cavendish. “What’s subsequent?” Cavendish returns. “What’s subsequent?” counters Bottas. And so forth. Sixteen occasions the query is requested within the video, which makes for dizzying viewing.
So, what’s subsequent for Cavendish? The closest we’ve gotten to realizing is in an interview he did with Males’s Well being journal final month. “I’ll at all times journey a motorcycle, however the previous few years I’ve recognized what I wish to do after. I’ve set the wheels in movement for that. I wish to keep in administration within the sport, I nonetheless like it,” he mentioned.
There’s a imprecise reply for you, Valtteri: administration in sport. Oh, and he’s additionally planning to run the Paris Marathon subsequent yr.
Elsewhere on social media, Izzy Sharp swims with dolphins, Tadej Pogačar will get his hair minimize, and two canines take to a wind tunnel.
1. What’s subsequent?
2. Valtteri Bottas rode 180km on an indoor bike
3. Matthew Richardson’s house monitor debut goes to be brew-tea-ful
4. Katie Archibald is gunning for a return to the monitor (okay, I am going to ease up on the puns now)
5. As somebody with a really comparable coiffure, I’m in no place to start out throwing stones
Are you able to discover a distinction? 🤣😜 #pogacar #biking #roglic #humorous pic.twitter.com/Hzq5AAgTOoNovember 11, 2024
6. Life’s a seashore for Matteo Jorgenson throughout his low season
Surf dude or professional bike owner @MatteoJorg? 😜🏄 @cervelo pic.twitter.com/MgdO419zqxNovember 13, 2024
7. Why journey a surfboard when you may journey dolphins?
8. What’s the important thing to trace success? Rice, apparently, and plenty of it
9. It is not simply people who want carbs for efficiency
10. These two at Specialised HQ are actually placing the ‘lab’ into labrador (I do know they’re Golden Retrievers, however enable it for the joke)
11. What number of cyclists can say they’ve performed the piano in Buckingham Palace? Nicely, Archie Atkinson can
12. And at last, here is a showreel of a few of Cavendish’s biggest moments, that will help you begin your weekend proper
