Sprint ace Mark Cavendish ends cycling career in style with Singapore win

SINGAPORE (AP) — Mark Cavendish, one of the best road sprinters in cycling history, retired in style on Sunday by winning the Tour de France Criterium in Singapore.

The 39-year-old from the Isle of Man broke famed Belgian cyclist Eddy Merckx’s long-standing record for most career Tour de France stage wins with his 35th victory in July.

Fittingly, for his final race Cavendish wore No. 35 on his race jersey and won in a dash to the line for the 165th victory overall in his career.

“I’m quite emotional actually,” Cavendish said. “I realised in the last 5 laps that it was the last 15 kilometers (9 miles) of my career.”

He finished just ahead of Belgian riders Jasper Philipsen and Arnaud De Lie.

“What an incredible day to share my last race with those riders,” Cavendish said. “With the future of sprinting, with this next generation of sprinters.”

Nicknamed the “Manx Missile,” Cavendish had planned to retire after the 2023 season but changed course and returned with the goal of passing Merckx’s Tour stage-win record.

However, Cavendish was a pure sprinter and — being limited in the mountain stages — was never close to winning the Tour.

Cavendish also won stages at the two other Grand Tours — 17 on the Giro d’Italia and three at the Spanish Vuelta — and became a world champion in 2011 in Copenhagen.

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