World's best ever sprinter Mark Cavendish deserves a better farewell

The penny probably dropped for Mark Cavendish at some point on Sunday morning before the peloton rolled out of Ypres for the 82nd edition of Gent-Wevelgem: this could be my last race.

Gent-Wevelgem has never been one of Cavendish's favourite races. The semi-cobbled classic does not feature on his immense list of 146 professional wins; in fact, he's never finished above the seventeenth place he picked up on his debut back in 2008, in a bunch sprint won by Oscar Freire.

Bunch sprints would become Cavendish's bread and butter. He went on to win two of them in his debut Giro a couple of months later, adding four that July in a breakthrough Tour de France he left with six days to spare.

That was the start of a prolific love affair with the world's biggest bike race which saw Cavendish swoop to 30 stage wins: four short of Eddy Merckx's leading tally – but, then again, many of the Cannibal's wins were in time trials, in which he was indomitable, so it's hardly a fair comparison.

In hindsight, it was not a surprise to see Cavendish on the front of the race in Flanders Fields on Sunday – part of an early breakaway which wouldn't go the distance, but would at least give Cavendish the opportunity to say a goodbye of sorts, a memory that wasn't just holding on towards the back of the peloton.

After he came home in the main pack six minutes down in 74th place, Cavendish let it all come out in the media zone as he passed through, emotionally telling the host broadcaster through tears which were no doubt mirrored by anyone watching: "that’s perhaps the last race of my career".

The declaration sent shockwaves through cycling, not least because Cavendish has become part of the sport's furniture. Sure, he may not have been performing to his usual high standards these past years, but Cavendish remains to sprinting what Jacques Anquetil was to the yellow jersey: a winner, a trailblazer, a man unbeatable in his pomp.

We have become so used to Cavendish that the thought of cycling without him feels a little empty, a little boring even.

"We all found it tough to watch," Bradley Wiggins admitted after his friend's tearful farewell went viral. "It's not the exit from the sport we want to see from a man who has achieved all he has achieved. We want to see him go out on a high."

A winner of 48 stages in Grand Tours, the World Championships in 2011, a Monument in 2009, a points jersey winner in all three of cycling's biggest stage races – Cavendish's record speaks for itself.

At the peak of his powers, there was only ever going to be one winner in a bunch sprint featuring Cavendish. For many, his last-gasp Milan-San Remo win over Heinrich Haussler, when he dragged himself over the Poggio and then fought back to pip the Australian in a photo finish on the via Roma, stands out.

For others, it was his rainbow triumph in Copenhagen when Cav, then only 27, became the first British rider since Tom Simpson to win a World title.

But for outright swashbuckling speed and finesse – capped with that slight streak of arrogance for which the Manx Missile became celebrated – it's hard to look beyond stage 18 of the 2010 Tour de France, his fourth of that year's race, when Cavendish was so far clear he had the time to look over his shoulder three times on the home straight and goad his rivals as he crossed the line in Bordeaux.

This was not only peak Cavendish, but peak HTC-Colombia – the team which revolutionised sprinting and sprint trains. His critics often say that Cavendish benefited too much from having a team capable of delivering him to the line – much like Michael Schumacher or Lewis Hamilton in Formula One.

But not everyone gets to ride a Ferrari. It's something you have to earn by being the best. And that's what Cavendish was.

There has never been a more successful pure sprinter in the game. On his day Cavendish was one of the best cycling has ever seen; but his day happened so often that we can only conclude that he was the best.

Wiggins said on Sunday that Cavendish will go down as one of Britain's greatest ever cyclists. But what the 2012 Tour winner didn't say is that without Cavendish, Britain's long reign as Tour de France winners – from Wiggins through to Thomas via Froome, all off the back of Team Sky and Ineos – may never have happened. High praise, given Cavendish was more about green than yellow.

In the wake of his comments on Sunday, Cavendish's team manager at Bahrain-McLaren, Rod Ellingworth, was approached by Eurosport to set the record straight one way or another. Was this really Cav's farewell ride?

"We are still talking; obviously due to the situation this season, everything is happening later in the season as well," Ellingworth told Orla Chennaoui on The Breakaway.

"So, recruitment is happening later, we are still not complete for next year. We have only recently secured finances going forward. Mark, like many other riders, will be out of contract, but discussions are going on.

"Mark is getting to the age where he is probably thinking about post-cycling, and he has not had the successful season he would have hoped for. I have not spoken to him about that in the last few days so let's see, but the next few weeks will be critical for all riders out of contract."

It's undeniable that age is catching up with the 35-year-old. After surprising everyone with four victories for Dimension Data during the 2016 Tour, Cavendish has never quite been the same since he was nudged into the barriers by Peter Sagan in Vittel at the end of stage 4 one year later.

His career since that race-ending incident has tapered. It's four years since that last Tour win; two and a half years since any win – and that came in Dubai in February, not France in July.

But if Cavendish's retirement makes total sense, that doesn't make the way in which he admitted it to the world on Sunday any less shocking. It was the hand-on-heart admission of a man who had woken up that morning with an idea – an idea which had perhaps germinated in his head while he braved the atrocious conditions in Belgium in a break which was always doomed to fail.

For someone who loves the cut and thrust of bike racing, the adrenaline of the sprint, Sunday's race probably just wasn't that much fun. Why continue? He has nothing more to prove. He has a lovely family waiting for him at home. He has created a world where the Caleb Ewans of the peloton are winning sprints – and winning by emulating the man they learned it all from, the man now reduced to a tearful wreck in the media zone of a bike race he never much liked anyway.

There is not one iota of shame in Mark Cavendish walking away from it all now. He can hold his head high. He will always be welcome back anywhere in the sport with open arms.

So, let's forget, for now, any chance of an eleventh-hour reprieve from Bahrain-McLaren to continue into a sixteenth year as a pro with some kind of rider-mentor role in 2021. If it happens, fine. Whether it should happen is another matter entirely.

Cavendish was due to race Scheldeprijs on Wednesday – the only remaining race of his 2020 schedule. Scheldeprijs was where it all began for Cavendish – his first major win for T-Mobile back in 2007. He won it again the following year and for a third time in 2011. Cavendish deserves to get the nod for one last race.

Here's hoping Britain's best cyclist and the best pure sprinter the sport has ever known is on the Scheldeprijs startlist on Wednesday so he – and we – can say goodbye properly.