Tour record stage winner Mark Cavendish will end his cycling career at the end of the 2023 season. The Brit announced this at a press conference on the second day of the Giro d’Italia rest. “Cycling has been my life for more than 25 years. I was living an absolute dream. It’s the perfect time to say it’s my last Giro d’Italia and that 2023 will be my last season as a professional cyclist,” Cavendish said at a press conference the day after his 38th birthday.
In his 17-year career, the sprinter has clinched 161 professional victories, including the 2011 World Championship title in Copenhagen, the spring classic Milan-Sanremo and a total of 53 stage victories in the three grand tours. At the Tour de France he holds the record with 34 stage victories together with the Belgian legend Eddy Merckx.
Sole record winner?
In the summer, Cavendish, who drives for the Kazakh Astana racing team, could become the sole record winner in his possible 14th Tour participation. But records are not his priority. “Even if I had 45 wins, I would go to the Tour de France to win,” he said.
However, Cavendish has been waiting for a win for over a year. His last success was at the British road cycling championships in 2022. Even at the Giro, the best result so far was third place on the eleventh stage, when Pascal Ackermann from the Palatinate won.
In addition to Cavendish, other riders who have shaped the sport for more than a decade will retire in the fall. Former Tour third-placed Thibaut Pinot is retiring, as is Rio Olympic champion Greg Van Avermaet. In 2024, three-time world champion Peter Sagan will only be out on his mountain bike.
