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Mark Cavendish planning switch to racing motorbikes?

Former world champion drops strong hint he may swap pedals for an engine once cycling career over

Mark Cavendish, as you might expect of a native of the Isle of Man, is a bit into motorbike racing – and now he’s said he may consider switching to racing them once his cycling career is over.

The 32-year-old made the revelation in an interview published last month by Esquire Middle East, ahead of his season-opener in this week’s Dubai Tour.

 

The interview was conducted in December, when Cavendish was staying in the region after attending the Abu Dhabi Formula 1 Grand Prix, which was held in late December.

“I’ve been in the Middle East for a couple of weeks now. I am loving it here. I come about five times a year.”

Asked whether he was a fan of F1, or just bikes, he replied: “Yes. I have always loved it. Anything to do with motors, or machines…vehicles really. Just love them.”

But when it was put to him whether he wished he’d been a Formula 1 driver, he said: “Na. I don’t think I’m good enough.

“Everybody thinks that it’s like driving a car down the promenade, it’s totally not the same. To be honest, I prefer motorbikes more; I would like to race them instead.”

Cavendish, who said he has “a couple of good” motorbikes, was asked whether he might switch to racing them once he retired from pro cycling.

“In all seriousness, I think so,” he said.

The Dimension Data has pals to whom he could turn to for tips – he’s good friends with top British rider Cal Crutchlow – and in 2015 went for a spin around Cape Town’s Killarney circuit with former elite cyclist, Jonny Towers, who tweeted afterwards: “Turns out the @MarkCavendish can ride a Moto pretty fast too ... First time on a track and only 3 secs off lap record."

Yesterday, speaking ahead of the pre-race press conference at the Dubai Tour, he was asked whether he really might race motorbikes in the future.

He said: “Anything is possible, you know. I will just look at my options for the short term and the long term and see what I do with my future.”

Cavendish finished 16th in today’s opening stage of the Dubai Tour, which was won by LottoNL-Jumbo’s Dylan Groenewegen.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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8 comments

Avatar
earth | 6 years ago
2 likes

I bagsy the eyeballs.

Avatar
RobD | 6 years ago
1 like

While I don't think he's likely to be challenging in moto gp or world superbikes etc, I could see him being pretty handy in some of the lower classes of bikes, as much as he can be a bit risky and has had his fair share of accidents, his desire to win and taking those risks are part of what has made him as good as he is, his awareness and racecraft when he's on form is amongst the best.

Avatar
Pilot Pete | 6 years ago
0 likes

What, disc?

PP

Avatar
Nick T | 6 years ago
0 likes

Probably be better off as a jockey

Avatar
Yorkshire wallet | 6 years ago
1 like

Too old. Maybe he could knock around in a national superstock class but that's it. 

You want to be elite, you've got to be in at around this age...

//i.pinimg.com/474x/32/f6/7d/32f67df0c0cbe20cfa98e69720757cdc--a-child-children.jpg)

Only a few rarities like Max Biaggi or Troy Corser started late and did anything. 

Avatar
salokin | 6 years ago
0 likes

And he thinks cycle sprinting is dangerous! Good luck with that one Mark....

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BehindTheBikesheds | 6 years ago
0 likes

Hope not, won't take long for him to wipe out.

Avatar
kil0ran replied to BehindTheBikesheds | 6 years ago
0 likes

BehindTheBikesheds wrote:

Hope not, won't take long for him to wipe out.

Sadly too old to make use of his elbows and other sprint black arts in Moto3. He'd be suited to that class - light, and its basically a 45-minute bunch sprint at most tracks.

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