Mark Cavendish Set to Continue?

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There are plenty of examples in sport of athletes who stayed one year too long.

Search online for a list and the same names come up time after time: Muhammad Ali, Shaquille O’Neal, Michaels Schumacher and Jordan and, more recently, the fast-fading golfing GOAT, Tiger Woods.

There’s an art to knowing when enough is enough, when it’s time to get off the stage, which is why the surprising news that Mark Cavendish may still be pondering his future, after first announcing his retirement in May 2023 and again in July this year, has once again reversed expectations of the record-breaking Tour de France stage winner.

The British rider’s record-breaking stage win, his 35th in the Tour, was one of the stories of the past summer and retirement was expected to follow soon afterward. But it hasn’t, at least not yet.

Speaking during the recent Tour of Britain, Cavendish, who was thought to have definitively quit racing following this year’s Tour, raised eyebrows when, to questions on his retirement, he said: “We’ll see what happens in the future.

“I’m still racing for a couple of months, and I’m definitely not finished this year. I still don’t know what happens after,” the 39-year-old told ITV. “I know I won’t be doing the Tour de France again. I said that before the Tour and after. I’m just taking time with my family and really chilling.

“I’ve actually taken time off before getting going again, and I’m training again now. When I’ve had time to process, we’ll see what happens in the future,” he said.

Asked if he might carry on racing, and even compete in next year’s Tour of Britain, he said: “Perhaps. I don’t know.”

Pushing the record further?

Those words fly in the face of the scenes during the final weekend of this year’s Tour de France, which to all appearances, seemed to be his valedictory performance.

His former teammate, now Astana Qazaqstan sports director, Mark Renshaw, had told Velo that the record-­breaking Tour stage winner had ridden not just his last Tour, but also his final race.

After the Tour’s final stage to Nice, Renshaw, said: “This is his last professional race.” But maybe there was a clue too in Renshaw revealing that he expected to remain with Astana himself into 2025. “They’d like me to stay for next year,” he added.

Renshaw, once Cavendish’s pilot-fish, praised the Briton’s career choices. “He’s managed to constantly surround himself with the best in the business, at different teams, at different times,” the Australian said.

“To have the drive to continue to win stages, to chase a 36th stage, shows his character. Everything was on (winning) 35, but a few days later, he lined up chasing a 36th. He was really disappointed to not succeed. He’s a team player and he knew that the guys (in the team) had given a year or two of their careers to help.”

Cavendish says that, since the Tour ended, he has been “really chilling,” even though he does have a commitment to compete in some criteriums in the Far East this autumn.

For most observers, both in and around the peloton, it feels like he has already had his final curtain call.

He was feted throughout the Tour, particularly after taking his record-breaking stage win in Saint Vulbas, and after crossing the line on the final mountain stage, at the Col de la Couillole, overlooking Nice, he was hugged and applauded by both UCI President, David Lappartient and Tour boss, Christian Prudhomme.

Following the final time trial in Nice, everyone thought, that’s it — end of story — but is there really one more season still to come?

“The desire is something always in him,” his old team boss Patrick Lefevere said this summer.

But then maybe one more year makes sense off the bike, even more than it does on it. That’s because in mid-July, Astana Qazaqstan announced a new Chinese investor, in carbon fibre company XDS.

“I am very happy to be part of this project and look to the future with great enthusiasm,” team boss Alexander Vinokourov, said. “We understand that the team and the entire project as a whole will face some significant changes, but we are ready for this.”

If he does stay, what goals might he target?

Cavendish is without doubt the team’s flagship rider, a global name, who generates recognition beyond cycling. He also transcends the team’s sometimes “difficult” past and is guaranteed box-office, traits which no doubt appeal to a Chinese brand looking to break into the West.

But having already ruled out another ride in the Tour de France, where and when, if he were to continue, would Cavendish race?

A start in the Vuelta, already heavily criticized for the severity of this year’s race — “More and more, the extreme is sought, which often becomes exaggerated, excessive, without thinking about the riders, their needs and their possibilities,” retired sprinter Mario Cipollini said — looks out of the question.

So what about the Giro, a race in which he has already won 17 stages?

Again, having announced his retirement during the Corsa Rosa in May 2023, a return seems unlikely.

That, plus rumors of a mountainous course — expected to include the graveled monster, Colle delle Finestre — makes an appearance on the start line for the Grande Partenza, expected to be in Trieste, unlikely.

All of which suggests that if he does carry on for another year, then a return to the Tour, which starts in Lille in northern France on July 5 and which looks likely to feature a series of sprint stages during the opening week, could prove almost irresistible.

That, allied to a bigger budget, the continued presence of Renshaw, the chance to add to his tally of stage wins and the lure of past happy hunting grounds, such as Valence — last visited in 2021 and rumored to be a stage town next July — might tip the balance.

So maybe that’s why we are again being kept hanging. One more year could happen — but should it?

Every time Cavendish has been doubted, he has proven his doubters wrong.

It’s something that he enjoys pointing out, if the opportunity arises. Yet he will be 40, next May. The oldest stage winner in the Tour’s history is Pino Cerami, who was over 41 when he won in Pau in 1963. Others, including Vinokourov, have won into their late thirties.

But surely, given the strength in depth of his rivals, to win again at the highest level, Cavendish would have to surpass his past form and be at the very peak of his abilities? Is that genuinely possible?

In July, Lefevere smiled when asked if his former rider is a racing perfectionist. “Not always,” he said. “When he came to us after winter one year, he had put on 10 kilos … but he always gets sharp again.”