I CAN'T GO PELOTON FOREVER

Manx Missile's final Tour of duty

- Mike Walters

CLASSY to the end, Mark Cavendish made it look as if the final curtain falling on his shoulders was the king’s robes. 

Flanked by his wife, Peta, and their children, the greatest sprinter in Tour de France history confirmed this will be his last season in the peloton.

After 53 Grand Tour stage wins, a road race world champion’s rainbow jersey, an Olympic silver medal and two sprinters’ maillots verts on Le Tour, the Manx Missile – 5ft 7in of aerodynamic buckshot on a bike – is on the home stretch.

Fairytales are rarely delivered to order in sport, but if Cavendish can bow out with a 35th Tour de France stage victory in July – he currently shares the record with Belgian legend Eddy Merckx on 34 apiece – he would transcend mere eminence and acquire immortality.

He has already purveyed miracles in the saddle by rebounding from multiple crashes, illness and dumb selection to draw level with Merckx by winning four stages in 2021.