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Mark Cavendish: The End of an Era

This was, of course, the farewell Tour for Mark Cavendish… sorry, Sir Mark Cavendish. And if there’s such a thing as cycling royalty, it’s certainly Cav, who got tons of screen time over the past three weeks. When Cav secured his 35th Tour de France stage win in Saint-Vulbas, the world gave a collective sigh of relief—a lifetime of excellence converged for Stage 5.

Over the course of the Tour, Cav suffered plenty, often making time cuts on the mountain stages by less than five minutes. But he always had a smile at the end. And he always thanked everyone around him. When asked how it felt when he came in after the final time trial stage, Cav said his whole career has taught him how to be a better father.

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Cavendish secured lanterne rouge status—the last rider on the general classification, and said, “I’ve been very, very lucky to have the career I’ve had, to work with people I have, to meet the people I have, and to have been able to live a dream, everyone’s dream.”

May Cav screaming, “We did it!” ring in our ears for years to come.

And a special shout-out to Remco Evenepoel (Soudal–Quick-Step), who wore the white jersey for just about the entire Tour. It’s a nice juxtaposition to Cav, 14 years younger, on his first-ever Tour. He did everything he could to put pressure on the top two, and he could hold his head high with third place in his first race around France.

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There Is No Pog without Jonas

But this Tour’s main characters have been the same for four Tours in a row now. And even though Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) are rivals, they harbor no hate for each other. In fact, especially on this Tour, they seemed to not only share respect for each other, but also respect for the larger picture and their place in it.

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Pogačar was coming off of injury last year and didn’t perform as well as he had hoped. Vingegaard and his team dominated everything they set out to do. This year, it was Vingegaard who was coming back from serious setbacks. And Pogačar wasn’t giving any handouts, but also seemed to root for the only man who had been able to challenge him in the past legitimately. This rivalry duo will certainly be one for the history books and, hopefully, one that dukes it out for years to come. This level of success is absolutely dependent on being pushed to the limit.

We didn’t get the traditional final celebratory sprint stage in Paris, but the individual time trial from Monaco to Nice was a lovely way to pay tribute to each rider in the race. WorldTour cycling is a brutal sport and a brutal life. We’ve seen some of the most impressive physical feats in history these past three weeks. But we’ve also seen remarkable sportsmanship, community, tears, and achievements that will move this sport to include more people around the world. What more can we ask for?

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MICAH LING

Writer

Micah Ling is a freelance writer who lives in the mountains of Colorado. She splits her free time between mountain biking and trail running.

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