Cycling - Tour de France - Stage 20 - Nice to Col de la Couillole - Col de la Couillole, France - July 20, 2024 Astana Qazaqstan Team's Mark Cavendish after stage 20 REUTERS/Stephane Mahe/File Photo
(Reuters) -Mark Cavendish will compete in his final professional race at the two-day Tour de France Criterium in Singapore on Sunday, the British cyclist said on Saturday, bringing down the curtain on his glittering career.
Cavendish, the world's most decorated sprinter, announced his retirement last year before reversing that decision and breaking the all-time record for most stage wins at the Tour de France during this year's race.
The 39-year-old won an individual silver medal on the track at the 2016 Rio Olympics and claimed three world titles in the madison discipline.
"Sunday will be the final race of my professional cycling career," Cavendish said on Instagram.
"I am lucky enough to have done what I love for almost 20 years and I can now say that I have achieved everything that I can on the bike.
"Cycling has given me so much and I love the sport, I've always wanted to make a difference in it and now I am ready to see what the next chapter has in store for me."
Cavendish racked up 165 victories in his career, including 35 stage wins at the Tour - one more than Belgian great Eddy Merckx. He also won the road world title in 2011.
His explosive ability to win bunch sprints earned Isle of Man native Cavendish the nickname "the Manx Missile".
He was diagnosed with Epstein-Barr Virus in 2017, an infection that causes glandular fever, and suffered a difficult few years before enjoying a return to form in 2021, winning four stages of the Tour de France with the Deceuninck-QuickStep team.
(Reporting by Aadi Nair in Bengaluru, editing by Ed Osmond)
