British cycling legend Mark Cavendish has confirmed that he will retire on Sunday after his final race in Singapore.
The Tour de France Criterium will mark the end of an illustrious career on two wheels for Cavendish, who earlier this year broke the record for the most stage wins at the Tour de France, with 35.
Posting on Instagram, he wrote: “Sunday will be the final race of my professional cycling career.
“I am lucky enough to have done what I love for almost 20 years and I can now say that I have achieved everything that I can on the bike. Cycling has given me so much and I love the sport.
“I’ve always wanted to make a difference in it and now I am ready to see what the next chapter has in store for me.” He added: “Thank you, everyone, for all the support, always.”
Widely regarded as one of the greatest ever road racers, the ‘Manx Missile’ does have form for changing his mind on retirement. On two previous occasions he planned to retire, but a sense of unfinished business kept him in the saddle.
Born in the Isle of Man, he started out riding BMX at a young age at the National Sports Centre in Douglas, with his former coach Dot Tilbury noticing his dislike for losing, as well as the fact he often lapped others in the field.
Two years after finishing school, he worked at a bank to save money in order to fund a professional career and by 2005 he turned that dream into a reality when he joined Team Sparkasse.
He joined the T-Mobile team in 2006 and spent five years there, during which time he claimed a first Tour de France victory over stage five, eight, 12 and 13.
Cavendish abandoned the tour at stage 14 to focus on the Olympics in 2012 as him and Bradley Wiggins were favourites for gold, despite eventually finishing ninth.
He moved onto Team Sky in 2012 for a year until he moved Omega Pharma-Quick-Step. He has then had stints at Dimension Data, Bahrain–McLaren and Deceuninck–Quick-Step before joining the
Astana Qazaqstan Team last year, with whom he will end his 19-year long career.
Cavendish was awarded an MBE in 2011 for ‘services to British cycling‘ and won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year that same year.
The 39-year-old also finishes his career with one Olympic silver medal and three World Championship Madison titles.
More to follow.
