"So ungrateful... after I pulled him out of the crap" - Lefevere lashes back after Mark Cavendish's critique

Mark Cavendish wrote one of the cycling's nicest stories of the current decade. Towards the end of 2020, the legendary British sprinter lacked quality to compete and was in a dire state also mentally. But Patrick Lefevere was willing to gamble on the winner of then 30 Tour de France stages and offered him a shelter at Deceuninck - Quick-Step.

The pay off was unimaginable; Cavendish went on to add further four Tour de France stages to his collection that summer and won the Green jersey. And in 2024, already in the jersey of Astana, he managed to break Eddy Merckx's all-time record to secure a 35th Tour de France stage win.

But none of that would've happened without Lefevere's intervention back when the career of Cavendish hit its lowest point - or so it appears from outsider perspective.

Surprsingly enough, Cavendish takes quite a reserved stance towards the methods at Quick-Step in his biography - something that does not sit well with his former manager. "Certainly not because he lashed out at me in his book afterwards and said things that weren't true," Lefevere notes in his Het Nieuwsblad column.

He particularly misses recognition for the opportunity Cavendish was given at the time. "I found that ungrateful. After all, I had pulled him out of the shit," writes Lefevere.

Cavendish in particular is not very fond of Lefevere's often cold and calculative approach to negotiations; rarely willing to pay extra and often letting go of his stars as a consequence.

Lefevere argues that he has often deviated from the safe route in the past. When he signed Richard Virenque in 2001, it drew considerable criticism from the cycling world. Ultimately, this proved to be a successful move. A similar scenario occurred in 2021 with Mark Cavendish. According to the manager, the Briton had little commercial or sporting value at that time. However, the partnership resulted in four stage wins in the Tour de France and the green jersey that year.