Mark Cavendish set to race for final time as a professional in November at Tour de France Singapore Criterium, organisers ASO confirm

It’s official. Well, at least Tour de France organisers ASO have said so, anyway.

Sir Mark Cavendish, four months on from making Tour history with that record-breaking 35th stage win in Saint-Vulbas, will race for the final time as a professional at the Tour de France Prudential Singapore Criterium on 10 November, ASO have confirmed.

Cavendish’s presence at the exhibition events, held in downtown Singapore, has long been common knowledge. But ever since the 39-year-old finished the final time trial stage of this year’s Tour de France in Nice, coyly hinting that he had “likely” just completed his final ever pro race, the rumour mill has been constantly churning that – for about the third or fourth time in his storied career – the Manx Missile was set to perform a dramatic retirement U-turn.

In September, reports emerged from Italy that Cavendish was considering signing on for another year at Astana Qazaqstan, the Kazakh squad which piloted him to that historic triumph in Saint-Vulbas, rumours that the former world champion didn’t exactly stamp out while attending a ceremony marking his groundbreaking career at the Tour of Britain.

> “It makes no sense” for Mark Cavendish to continue racing in 2025 says Astana boss, after Tour de France record breaker raises doubts about retirement plans

“I’m still racing in a couple of months, and I’m definitely not finished for this year. I still don’t know what happens after,” he told ITV4 during the Tour of Britain’s final stage in Felixstowe.

“I know that I won’t be doing the Tour de France again. I said that before the Tour, and I said it after the Tour, but I’m just taking time with my family actually and been chilling.

“I have actually really taken time off before getting going on the bike again, and I’m training again now. When I’ve had time to process, we’ll see what happens in the future.”

 (Zac Williams/SWpix.com)

Cavendish was then asked if he could potentially return to the Tour of Britain Men in 2025, prompting the mysterious reply: “Perhaps, I don’t know.”

And upon receiving his knighthood from Prince William at Windsor Castle last week, Cavendish said that it “will be really nice to race as a Knight Commander” – though he did insist that “I won’t do another Tour de France”.

> “The Tour de France is bigger than cycling. And we’ve done it”: Record-breaker Mark Cavendish’s greatest ever Tour de France stage wins

The ambiguity surrounding the Astana sprinter’s retirement plans since July, however, appears to have been put to rest on Thursday, when Tour de France organisers ASO published a press release advertising their upcoming criteriums in Singapore, describing them as “the last race for sprint legend Mark Cavendish”.

Alongside Cavendish, who has appeared at the previous two Singapore Criteriums, the annual post-race exhibition events held around the city’s Esplanade Park, four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome, retired Italian and Tour champion Vincenzo Nibali, and recent Vuelta a España winner Primož Roglič (who called time on his racing season proper earlier this week in order to recover for 2025) will also be lining up, the latter three appearing as part of a ‘Tour de France Legends’ squad alongside Japanese veteran Yukiya Arashiro.

 (Zac Williams/SWpix.com)

Meanwhile, Cavendish will face some ‘competition’ (an extremely loose term when describing cycling’s long, venerable history of semi-scripted circuit events) in the sprint at his last outing as a pro, with Jasper Philipsen and 2024 Tour green jersey winner Biniam Girmay also making the trip.

“Mark Cavendish, Biniam Girmay, Jasper Philipsen, Victor Campenaerts, Anthony Turgis… The winners of nine out of the 21 stages of the 2024 Tour de France will gather in Singapore,” Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme said in a statement.

“With Chris Froome, Vincenzo Nibali and Primož Roglič also joining, the public will once again have the opportunity to enjoy a spectacular show featuring the biggest champions of the Tour. The Tour de France Prudential Singapore Criterium is sure to be a fantastic celebration of cycling.”

> Mark Cavendish's Tour de France stage-winning bikes — from Giant to Wilier, every bike the Manx Missile rode to his record-breaking 35 Tour stage wins

The criterium will certainly offer one last chance to pin on a number and soak in the adulation of the crowd for Cavendish, who capped a fitting end to his storied career by receiving his knighthood from Prince William at Windsor Castle last week.

(Aaron Chown)

“I’m a proud Brit,” the 2009 Milan-Sanremo winner said after becoming Sir Mark. “I’ve represented the country many, many times in my career, and with all the proud of the flag and to know you’ve been recognised by your country and his Highness is something very, very special."

“To have an award, to have it bestowed upon you, a honour is not something generally you’re used to as a sports person.

“As a sports person you have a goal and you put the work in to achieve that goal. As a cyclist it’s a race, it’s a win and you are generally in control of how you get there and it’s a process that comes. But to have something that is bestowed upon you and it feels different because it’s super humbling.”

He continued: “I never thought growing up that anybody in cycling would be knighted and to just see that in my career, that cycling was important enough, with Sir Brad [Wiggins], Sir Dave [Brailsford], Sir Chris [Hoy], Dame Laura [Kenny], Dame Sarah [Storey], it’s pretty special.

“Cycling as quite small and niche when I started, to know it’s big enough and successful enough in this country, it gets recognition, it gets rewarded, that’s special enough for me.”

(Charlie Forgham-Bailey/SWpix.com)

But before he rides off into the sunset in Singapore, Cavendish is also set to team up with his former Madison partner (and fellow Knight of the Realm) Bradley Wiggins at next weekend’s Gran Fondo Hincapie, to raise money for hurricane relief efforts in the US.

Along with organiser and former US Postal pro George Hincapie, Wiggins and Cavendish will be joined for the charity event by 1997 Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich.

However, both the Gran Fondo and Singapore Criterium aren’t classified as UCI races, so unfortunately we won’t see Cavendish add to his career total of 165 professional victories.

Until he changes his mind about retiring again, that is…