Mark Cavendish is on the way out at Sky after the one year marriage failed due to unreconcilable differences. There just wasn’t room for the world’s fastest sprinter and Tour de France champion Bradley Wiggins.
This reminds Twisted Spoke of one of those Hollywood marriages that’s doomed from the start. The aftermath is always the same, with the publicist for each star claiming “they still really love each other” but it was time to move one.
With one huge ego away from six months in one country making a movie and the other huge ego in another part of the country making a different movie there really wasn’t much or a relationship to keep going.
Which brings us back to Cavendish and his imminent departure from Sky. It was a relationship that several people said was doomed from the start. Cav’s old HTC-Highroad boss Rolf Aldag said early on that managing the conflicting aims of a yellow and green jersey at the Tour de France was almost impossible.
It was a tribute to Cavendish’s versatile skills that despite little support, he still managed three stage wins — including the final on the Champs Ellysee when Wiggins had already wrapped up yellow.
Now we find that according to Sky teammate Juan Antonio Flecha (who is free to dish now that he’s also leaving Sky) Cavendish wasn’t accorded the big boss title that Wiggins had earned. “Sky treated him as a great rider, but not the boss,” said Flecha. Even with all those World Champion colors on his jersey, he just didn’t get boss ranking.
De Jongh also gave the relationship the Hollywood marriage spin. “I think both sides are not entirely happy,” he said. “It did not turn out as we had hoped. It’s not a happy marriage.” This makes Cavendish the Penelope Cruz in the Tom Cruise split. Or perhaps the Jennifer Aniston in the Brad Pitt falling out or the Sandra Bullock role in the Jesse James debacle.
The man just wants some love and affection and a fast lead-out train. Is that too much to ask for a world champion, new father and Member of the British Empire? The team that popularized the phrase “marginal gains” but now take a “massive minus.”
Where is Mark Cavendish headed? Wherever there isn’t a top GC threat to win the Tour de France, Le Grand Shindig. Can you imagine how annoyed he is that rival Andre Greipel now has a well-drilled train like he used to own at HTC-Highroad? Greipel — the rider Cav once dismissed as a guy only capable of winning “shit races.” Even little Delilah knows daddy is pissed about that one.
His old crew at HTC — Brian Holm and Aldag — are patiently awaiting the signature on the exit papers so they can figure out how to scrounge up the euros to sign Cavendish. And this time Cavendish’s lawyers will make sure it’s written right into the contract: Mark is the boss.
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