Pro Log: Mark Cavendish wins final race; Paralympians snubbed; Steve Cummings leaves Ineos Grenadiers

Cyclist
Pro Log: Mark Cavendish wins final race; Paralympians snubbed; Steve Cummings leaves Ineos Grenadiers

Welcome to the latest edition of Pro Log, where we look at the pro cycling news from the past week. Here’s a rundown of the latest results before we get started:

• Tour de France Prudential Singapore Criterium, Sun 10th Nov: 1st Mark Cavendish, Astana-Qazaqstan, 1h 24min 44sec; 2nd Jasper Philipsen, Alpecin–Deceuninck, +0sec; 3rd Arnaud De Lie, Lotto Dstny, +0sec. 
• Rapencross Lokeren Men, X²O Badkamers Trofee, Sun 10th Nov: 1st Thibau Nys, Baloise Trek Lions, 1h 01min 40sec; 2nd Niels Vandeputte, Alpecin–Deceuninck Development, +5sec; 3rd Jente Michels, Alpecin–Deceuninck Development, +7sec. 
• Rapencross Lokeren Women, X²O Badkamers Trofee, Sun 10th Nov: 1st Lucinda Brand, Baloise Trek Lions, 46min 07sec; 2nd Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado, Fenix-Deceuninck, +21sec; 3rd Sara Casasola, Crelan-Corendon, +34sec. 

Mark Cavendish retires with a sprint victory

Mark Cavendish (Astana-Qazaqstan) won his final race before retirement at the Tour de France Prudential Singapore over the weekend. Surging to the line for a bunch sprint finish, Cavendish beat Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Arnaud De Lie (Lotto Dstny) and Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) to end his career on a high.

Due to the less pressurised nature of Tour de France crits, it won’t have been the most competitive sprint that Cavendish has faced in his long career, but that won’t have bothered him as he crossed the line with his arms in the air one last time. His retirement comes at the end of a year in which he finally claimed the outright record for most Tour de France stage wins from Eddy Merckx with victory on Stage 5 in Saint-Vulbas, his 35th stage success since making his debut at the race back in 2007.

He also received the typical guard of honour and rode through with a large smile on his face as the peloton parted.

Steve Cummings leaves Ineos Grenadiers amid staff restructuring

Steve Cummings has announced on LinkedIn that he has left his position as director of racing at Ineos Grenadiers to begin a ‘new phase’ of his career after a season of uncertainty about his non-attendance at races.

He said, ‘I’ve always enjoyed and thrived working in a high-performance environment and I will continue to have significant involvement in the sport. My focus is now on a new challenge within professional cycling.’

Cummings was notably absent from races such as the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France, Vuelta a España and Tour of Britain despite his pivotal position in the team.

The news comes after Ineos Grenadiers revealed a new staff and performance structure for the upcoming season that includes Kurt Asle Arvesen as lead sport director, Tom Helleman from dsm-firmenich PostNL as lead performance coach and Dr Mehdi Kordi as head of performance support and innovation. The latter worked with the Dutch athletics team that claimed gold medals at the Paris Olympics in the women’s marathon and 4x 400m mixed relay.

GB Paralympics team subbed

Archie Atkinson has told Cyclist that he agrees with fellow Paralympian Zac Shaw’s comments criticising high-end store Fortum & Mason for effectively snubbing the Paralympics GB team. The department store organised an after-party for Team GB following a reception at Buckingham Palace in which they met the King, but it was only for Team GB and not Paralympics GB.

Atkinson, who won a silver medal in the men’s C4 pursuit at the Paralympics this summer, said, ‘We were told to wear tracksuits to meet the King. The Olympics squad had been given suits as kit issue for events like these. We were told they weren’t giving us them for environmental reasons. But if it’s actually funding reasons then I completely understand, I would just rather they be honest about that.

‘Having to go to the Palace in a tracksuit makes us stand out and feel inferior to the Olympic athletes who were dressed smartly.’

Atkinson was able to attend the after-party with Olympian friends, and added they were shocked by the fact Paralympians hadn’t been invited.

Fortnum & Mason has since responded to the after-party snub by saying there is a ‘separate reception in the works’ and that it was a ‘failure of communication on our part’.

Pro Log will return in 2025.

The post Pro Log: Mark Cavendish wins final race; Paralympians snubbed; Steve Cummings leaves Ineos Grenadiers appeared first on Cyclist.