Mark Cavendish's final message as cycling legend breaks down in tears with farewell win

Knight rider dissolved into tears after being given a guard of honour and taking the final curtain in triumph.

The Manx missile In his farewell race before retirement, it had to be Cavendish who breasted the tape - because his whole career has been blessed by an invincible sense of occasion.

Just as he sprinted into the history books four months ago the greatest sprinter in road cycling history admitted: “I really wanted that so bad.”

Before setting off on 25 laps of a 1.42-mile course wearing No.35 as a nod to his feat in the summer, Cavendish was afforded a ‘wheel of honour’ by the peloton on the start line - holding their bikes on one wheel and spinning the other. If he had been a magician - and in so many races it appeared that he belonged to the Magic Circle - Sir Cav, 39, would have ridden through an avenue of spinning plates.

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But when it sank in that his magnificent career was over, he couldn’t help turning on the taps. Speaking through the tears, he said: "I realised in the last five laps it was the last 15 kilometres of my career.

“I passed the flamme rouge (indicating 1km to go) for the last time in my career and I felt that. I hadn’t raced since the Tour de France so I missed that sharpness and, when the guys are here with their lead-out teams, it was always going to be difficult.

“But you see the amazing job that my team, Astana Qazaqstan, did leading me out, and I had to go for it.

“In the final lap, I was nervous about crashing or something if I fight (for the win). I really wanted at least to finish my last race. I could feel the lead coming, and when I passed Jasper (Philipsen) I could feel him speed up, but I really wanted that so bad. I'm so proud to win the Tour de France Prudential Criterium as my last professional race.”

Cavendish leaves the peloton with a dizzying collection of honours.

As well as his 35 stage wins, he twice won Le Tour’s Green Jersey for sprinters, a silver medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics in the omnium, a 2011 champion’s rainbow jersey in the road race in 2011 and three Madison world titles on the track. He also wore the leader’s fabled Yellow Jersey on the Tour in 2016 after winning the opening stage on Utah Beach in Normandy and, in 2011, he was voted Sports Personality of the Year.

Those achievements defied running battles with depression, the Epstein-Barr virus - a debilitating form of glandular fever - being dropped from the Tour three times between 2019-22 and, terrifyingly, an armed robbery at knifepoint in November 2021 at his Essex home.

Cycling will be an emptier place without him, and he admitted he doesn’t know what happens next.

”I love this sport, I've always loved this sport, especially the Tour de France," said Cavendish. "The Tour de France isn't just a bike race, it's the biggest annual sporting event in the world. It's what children dream of, it's what adults dream of, it's what you pretend to do when you're out training.

"Cycling's such a form of freedom, it's a way to meet people, it's a way to be alone with your thoughts, it's a way to be however you want to be. It has so much potential as a sport, as a mode of transport, as a pastime. I've always believed this and I try and do anything I can to help this move forward.

"That won't stop, even if I'm not riding a bike any more. In fact I might be able to put more into that now. I'm really looking forward to what the rest of my career holds, just not on the bike.

"I couldn't have wished for a better send-off than here. To have my wife and my friends here is brilliant. I'm so emotional, I'm so grateful and I hope everyone enjoyed that.”