LONDON — British cyclist Mark Cavendish is set to compete in his final professional race at the two-day Tour de France Criterium in early November, according to the organisers of the race.
Cavendish, 39, nicknamed the ‘Manx Missile’, amassed 165 victories, including a record 35 stage wins at the Tour de France, and has not competed since achieving that milestone in July.
The Tour de France Criterium will be held in Singapore from 9-10 November.
The Isle of Man native also won an individual silver medal on the track at the 2016 Rio Olympics and claimed three world titles in the Madison discipline.
Cavendish was set to retire at the end of the 2023 season but decided to delay it by a year after crashing at last year’s Tour de France, Reuters reported.
Unstoppable Slovenian Tadej Pogacar produced a stunning solo attack to win the men’s road race title to bring down the curtain on the world championships in Zurich.
Pogacar took off with 100km of the 273-km ride left and won by 34 seconds to add the rainbow jersey to the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France crowns he won this year – becoming only the third man ever to complete the hat-trick in a single season.
The 26-year-old was able to cruise the last 500 metres to the line with his arms raised in the air as he became the first Slovenian rider to win the world title on the road.
His rivals were left to fight for the silver and it was Australian Ben O’Connor who launched out of a high-quality chase group to finish second on the podium.
Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel, who won the title last year in Glasgow, took the bronze medal.
Pogacar went off the front of the peloton containing all the favourites with 100km left and, with the help of teammate Jan Tratnik, he bridged across to the early breakaway.
Once alone, he put the hammer down and when he began the last of the seven 27-km hilly circuits around Zurich’s suburbs he had a one-minute lead and the rainbow jersey looked to be in the bag.
But he showed signs of suffering as the chasers began to erode the gap and at one stage it seemed he might even have emptied his considerable tank of energy too early.
He recovered though and after powering up the final climb it was clear he would emulate the feat of Eddie Merckx in 1974 and Stephen Roche in 1987.
“I cannot believe what just happened,” Pogacar said according to Reuters. “After this kind of season I put a lot of pressure on myself, pressure from myself and the team.
“We came here for the victory. I maybe did a stupid attack but I never gave up until the final. It’s incredible.”
Pogacar’s season almost defies belief. Not only did he win his third Tour de France with six stage wins and his first Giro, also with six stage wins, he also won the Liege-Bastogne-Liege and Strade Bianche classics and totalled 23 victories altogether.
He said that attacking so far from home on Sunday was not exactly the plan though.
“Of course not, the plan was to keep the race under control but the race went quite early and I don’t know what I was thinking and I just went also and luckily I made it,” he said.
“It was so tough, it was incredible. After many years fighting for other races I never had the world championships as a clear goal and this year everything went smooth.”
Discussion about this post