"The best sprinter of all time" - Jose De Cauwer reflects on legendary career of Mark Cavendish

The curtain fell down on the legendary career of British sprint icon Mark Cavendish last weekend, as the 39-year-old Manxman took victory with his final professional pedal stroke at the Tour de France Singapore Criterium.

Since then, praise and stories from the Cavendish career have been detailed by fans, riders and experts alike, with Sporza's Jose de Cauwer no different. "Of course you can look into history, but you have to conclude that he was the best sprinter of all time," the Belgian cycling expert assesses. "It was great that he broke Merckx's record in the Tour, but I still felt bad about it because of Mads Pedersen's heavy fall. But he deserves it and he deserved that record. He was often seriously injured, but he always came back at a high level."

Taking 165 victories over the course of his career including 35 Tour de France stages, 17 Giro d'Italia stages, 3 Vuelta a Espana stages, a World Championship road race title, a monument victory at Milano-Sanremo and much, much more, Cavendish's biggest strength came in his expert positioning according to De Cauwer.

"Cavendish could position himself like no other and he also dared to gamble. That is an advantage in a mass sprint. Especially at the age of 39, as a sprinter you have to take a gamble now and then. He did that perfectly," he explains. "Sometimes his sprinting style was a bit over the top. But he is an emotional person. During but also after the race. He added colour to the race."

"Cavendish has made us realize the importance of a good lead out again," De Cauwer concludes. "After the incident with Andre Greipel at the beginning of his career, he has always had the best lead outs. Mark Renshaw and later Michael Morkov. He has benefited a lot from that, but he was also simply the fastest himself."