Mark Cavendish happy to retire from cycling in his own terms: "There is nothing more I could have done in the sport"

Mark Cavendish won the BBC Lifetime Achievement Award and has provided some more insight into what's next in his professional career. After thriving as a pro rider, and a very popular one at that, he has multiple paths he can follow and this could potentially be a management role in a cycling team.

"Of course I will miss racing but I'm happy because I've had 20 years and done more than I ever could have planned or dreamed of doing," Cavendish said in an interview with The Guardian. "Obviously I've still got a lot of life left, and I still have to provide for my family, and so I think that's going to be in cycling team management. I know the sport and I know how to build a team and that's where I'm heading. It's exciting". 

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He will be an ambassador at the upcoming Tour Down Under, and that could be part of his now permanent presence in the sport. Ambassador roles for specific races, the Tour de France itself or brands connected to pro cycling are a sure fire way to make a sustainable living for the Manxman. But he may also pursue a new challenge within the peloton, working with a team in a management role - potentially helping develop new sprinters, or even as a DS are his former leadout man Mark Renshaw did with Cavendish this year.

Regardless of what follows, Cavendish is truly happy with how his career came to a close. After decade and a half of building his legacy, he won his record-breaking 35th stage at the Tour de France and officially put himself in the history books. "There is nothing more I could have done in the sport. And there already was zero to be done a long time ago," he argues.

"I'm very, very lucky that I get to retire, having zero regrets. I'm finally going out on my terms – not because of injury or some team manager trying to make me retire. I've done everything I wanted and I'm choosing the way I leave the sport as a competitor. How lucky is that?"

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