Sir Mark Cavendish claimed victory in his final race as a professional cyclist.
The 39-year-old produced a trademark sprint finish to cross the line first in the Tour de France Prudential Singapore Criterium.
Cavendish’s fellow competitors gave him a guard of honour ahead of the race and the Manxman was understandably emotional at the end.
Speaking to Eurosport through tears he said: “I realised in the last five laps it was the last 15km of my career. I passed the flamme rouge (indicating one kilometre to go) for the last time in my career and I felt that.
“I didn’t race since the Tour de France so I missed that sharpness and, when the guys are here with the lead-out teams, it was always going to be difficult, but you see the amazing job that my team, Astana Kazakhstan, did leading me out, I had to go.
“I had to let Jasper (Philipsen) and Biniam (Girmay) in in the final lap, I was nervous about crashing or something if I fight. I really wanted to finish at least my last race.
“I could feel the lead coming, and when I passed Jasper I could feel him speed up, but I really wanted that so bad. I’m so proud to win the Tour de France Prudential Criterium as my last professional race.”
In the summer, Cavendish took his 35th stage win in the Tour de France to break the record he had held jointly with Eddy Merckx.
He also won 20 stages across the Vuelta a Espana and the Giro d’Italia, winning the points classification twice at the Tour de France and once each in the other two grand tours.
His success extended to the track, where he won an Olympic silver medal in the omnium in Rio in 2016, while he was a three-time world champion in the Madison and a Commonwealth champion for the Isle of Man in the scratch race.
What retirement holds remains to be seen, although it seems Cavendish is not planning to stay away from cycling for long.
“I love this sport, I’ve always loved this sport, especially the Tour de France,” he said.
“The Tour de France isn’t just a bike race, it’s the biggest annual sporting event in the world. It’s what children dream of, it’s what adults dream of, it’s what you pretend to do when you’re out training.
“Cycling’s such a form of freedom, it’s a way to meet people, it’s a way to be alone with your thoughts, it’s a way to be however you want to be.
“It has so much potential as a sport, as a mode of transport, as a pastime, and I truly believe this and I’ve always believed this and I try and do anything I can to help this move forward.
“That won’t stop, even if I’m not riding a bike any more. In fact I might be able to put more into that now. I’m really looking forward to what the rest of my career holds, just not on the bike.
“I couldn’t have wished for a better send-off than here. To have my wife and my friends here is brilliant. I’m so emotional, I’m so grateful and I hope everyone enjoyed that.”
Cavendish’s best cycling moments
By Sky Sports’ Nigel Chiu:
2009: Six Tour de France stage wins
Cavendish made his road breakthrough in 2007, two years after he turned professional, and soon became the rider to beat on flat stages.
He won his first Tour de France stage in 2008 with Team High Road and 12 months later the ‘Manx Missile’ tasted victory six times at the Tour.
His dominant victory in the Champs-Elysees that year put him on 10 Tour wins already and Cavendish was arguably at the peak of his career.
2011: World champion in Copenhagen
The World Championships road course rarely suits the sprinters but the 2011 route in Copenhagen was made for the fast men.
Cavendish went into the event having won another five Tour stages, plus the green jersey for the first time, so had a target on his back.
It was a manic finish and Cavendish had to ride the wheels of his rivals, including Matthew Gos and Andre Greipel, before emerging from the pack on the right-hand side in the final 100m to win.
In doing so, he became Britain’s first world champion on the road since Tommy Simpson in 1965.
2012: Fourth consecutive Champs-Elysees win
2012 was a disappointing year for Cavendish because he was unable to contend for a medal at the Olympics as other countries forced Team GB to bring back the breakaway, a tactic which failed to work.
He was also with a new squad – Team Sky – and did not have the same success compared to previous seasons as the team’s first goal was to protect Sir Bradley Wiggins at the Tour de France.
On Stage 18, Cavendish had a stunning win when he chased down the breakaway in the final 400m after help from Team Sky.
Following Wiggins’ Stage 19 time-trial victory, the yellow jersey was sealed and on the final stage at the Champs-Elysees, Team Sky went all-in for Cavendish.
The iconic picture of Wiggins in yellow helping to lead out Cavendish in the final kilometre is etched in many cycling fans’ memory and, as expected, Cav stormed to victory to make it four Champs-Elysees wins in four years.
2016: Olympic silver in Rio
Cavendish had a disappointing record at the Olympics going into 2016, having finished ninth in the men’s madison in Beijing 2008 with team-mate Wiggins and having the disappointment of London 2012.
He split his 2016 season by riding on the road and track, with one eye on competing in the velodrome at the Olympics in Rio.
Cavendish rode in the omnium for Team GB and had to settle for silver behind Italian Elia Viviani. He was “super happy” with the result though as he banished his Olympic nightmares.
In the same year, Cavendish nearly became world champion for a second time on the road, narrowly losing out to Peter Sagan in a sprint.
2021: Silencing his critics
It looked like Cavendish was going to have little success in the final part of his career as he went through a number of crashes, injuries and illnesses between 2017 and 2020.
He revealed he had been diagnosed with Epstein-Barr virus in 2017 and struggled to climb stairs or play with his children. At the same time, other sprinters had now come to the fore.
In 2021, he returned to Deceuninck-Quick-Step and was not going to be selected for the Tour de France. But, the team’s lead sprinter Sam Bennett suffered a knee injury, so Cavendish was called up.
To everyone’s surprise, Cavendish won Stage 4 at the Tour, his first victory at cycling’s most famous race for five years.
He went on to win three more stages and equalled Eddy Merckx’s record of 34 stage victories at the Tour to underline his status as one of the greatest riders the sport has seen.
2024: Breaking Merckx’s record
Cavendish narrowly missed out on winning a stage on the 2023 Tour, then crashed and was forced to abandon.
That was set to be Cavendish’s last Tour de France, as he announced his retirement ahead of the race. However, he changed his mind and decided to continue racing in 2024 for the Astana Qazaqstan Team.
After a difficult season prior to the Tour, Cavendish was not expected to be on top form.
But on Stage 5, he suddenly hit the front at the end in a messy sprint finish to hold off Jasper Philipsen and Alexander Kristoff to break Merckx’s record and move into a league of his own.