Seventeen years after his first one, Mark Cavendish has ridden and completed his last ever Tour de France, with 35 stage wins in his back pocket and the 2024 edition’s lanterne rouge – the last rider on the general classification.
The Briton was the second man to ride the 33.7km mountainous time trial from Monaco to Nice, and he told reporters after that it was “likely” his last ever professional bike race, though he later sidestepped a similar question.
A year on from delaying retirement to secure win number 35, a victory obtained in the race’s first week that moved him one ahead of Eddy Merckx in the all-time list of stage wins, Cavendish described himself as “incredibly happy” with how his 15th Tour unfolded.
“I think there are 11 teams [10 - ed] left at the Tour de France without a win, and we got the win, the win we wanted which is important,” he said after finishing 1:28 slower than his Astana-Qazaqstan teammate Davide Ballerini in the time trial, dropping him to the bottom of the race’s GC.
“Like everything, you live a rollercoaster at the Tour de France, but we bond together as a group, and you enjoy the successes and hard times together. I am so lucky to have a group around me here that we could get through and achieve the success we wanted.”
Cavendish, as ever, has struggled through the race’s mountain stages, but he persisted so that he could have his victory lap in Nice which ended with a salute as he pressed pause, possibly forever, on his extraordinary cycling career.
"I think I got most of the emotions out the way yesterday so I could kind of enjoy today,” he reflected. “I couldn’t go easy, but I knew if I got to the top of the climb by a certain point, I’d be alright for the time limit, so I did that and could then just really enjoy it. I enjoyed counting down the kilometres, seeing the flamme rouge for the final time, and seeing my family as I crossed the line. It was very, very nice."
If this was to be the 39-year-old’s swansong, he departs as the most successful sprinter in the sport’s history with 165 wins. "I’ve been very, very lucky to have the career I’ve had, to work with people I’ve had, to meet the people I have, and to have been able to live a dream, everyone’s dream,” he said.
“You see the successes, the photos and videos of wins, but it’s very rare that people see everything that goes on behind, everything that makes that. It [cycling] has taught me a lot about myself, how to be a father, and that’s the biggest thing I’ll take from the sport.”
