Patrick Lefevere BLASTS Mark Cavendish over 'con': "Gave him a contract when nobody wanted him anymore. Now we get this"

Mark Cavendish was never not a controversial figure in the sport of cycling and in a book that hehe has released one week ago called 'Believe: Achieving the Impossible' he has discussed his time with Soudal - Quick-Step, one marked by a grandious comeback to the top of the sport, and a very rocky business with then team CEO Patrick Lefevere.

Context is key to this matter, as Cavendish, after over a decade of consistent Tour de France wins, was on the look for the Tour de France stage win record. At the end of 2019 he moved from Team Dimension Data to Bahrain - Victorious, but had a year without a single result to show for. Whilst his Epstein-Barr diagnosis was mostly behind this, his previous years with the South African team were also lacking in results, and he got to the end of 2020 with small hopes of netting himself a contract in the World Tour or even have the chance to ever go back to the Tour.

But he found a new team in Soudal - Quick-Step, where a deal with Patrick Lefevere saw him remain in the sport for another year. Having improved from his illness, Cavendish headed to the Tour after having taken a few wins throughout the year and then went on to win no less than four bunch sprints at the Grand Boucle, taking him to the record-equaling number of 34 wins. The comeback was a hit.

But then 'what next?' was in no way smooth. The Manxman wad eventually renewed for another year with Quick-Step, but despite all of his performances and a stage win at the Giro d'Italia (alongside a few others), he was simply not selected to the Tour, the race that kept him in the peloton. Fabio Jakobsen did, completing his own miraculous journey of recovery after the 2020 Tour de Pologne's life-threatening crash.

As reported by Het Nieuwsblad, what we learn about the Manxman's time in Quick-Step is that he felt like he was being tricked financially. And he did not spare on the words to Patrick Lefevere: "He was just screwing me, that's how it felt". On the basis of this is Lefevere's complete silence after the 2021 Tour de France, the lack of a concrete offer and bonuses that were being payed bike bike provider Specialized, not the team itself.

“A year earlier, Patrick, in whose team I’d raced in pomp, had even asked me to send him a CV before he considered signing me, for fuck’s sake. Now he’d spent months making me sweat again – just fucking with me, was how it felt".

“I reminded him of the agreement we’d had before the Tour, for €500,000, and he said he had no recollection. I told him that, anyway, that was the price we’d discussed, and since then I’d won four stages at the Tour and the green jersey… so really I should be getting double, particularly as there were riders in the team who had won two, three races in their entire career and were on seven figures. Patrick shook his head apologetically: he only had €250,000 left in his budget," Cavendish wrote.

However in the end Cavendish did end up with a €500.000 salary for that season, somewhat proving his point that Lefevere was only trying to strike a deal. Now that he is no longer a cyclist or connected to the team, Cavendish says it as it is in his point of view: “The whole saga had been frankly insulting. Somehow Patrick always found a way to make sure he felt like the winner, and here he’d done it again. I’d blinked first and, ultimately, should have held out for €750,000.”

A lot of unclarity over Cavendish's future led to stress and uncertainties, which are the root behind his criticism... To which Lefevere also did not stay silent to upon reading the excerpt from the book: "I find what Mark is writing regrettable. I bailed him out of the mess back then and gave him a contract when nobody wanted him anymore. Now we get this. Ingratitude is clearly the world's reward".

Cavendish's time with Quick-Step did not end the way it had been initially intended with the Manxman directly being taken out of the Tour de France lineup where he had the legs and the chance to make history, but with Astana he eventually did in 2024 where his 35th Tour de France win made him the rider who has won the most in the history of the race.