Two British stars are hanging up their wheels, as the saying
goes. Mark Cavendish the Tour de France
sprint champion with a record 35 stage victories to his credit has already gone
at the end of this season.
He will be followed at the end of 2025 by Lizzie Deignan -
classics winner and former world champion. - Unless both have second thoughts
about leaving the glamour of the cycling circus.
We will miss trying to spot Cav – the Manx Missile - Carve a
path through those mass sprint finishes on Le Tour, and in the classics and in
taking the world road title.
And we will miss those Deignan moments, too, the lone breakaways
which have brought her so many victories, including the world road title and that
memorable inaugural Paris – Roubaix among other classics
There have been many newspaper features about their exploits
recently.
The question is, how will they adapt to the humdrum –
by comparison – of family life put on hold these past two decades
in the pursuit of victories in the great races?
Or will it come as a relief, to have a more stable life, a
mix of the mundane like shopping, dusting, catching up with those special moments of
their children’s development, making up for the birthdays missed because they
were racing.
Not all ex-pros can cope with a return to home life – men
mostly. Some scurry back to the sport,
as team directors, or drivers, or as TV pundits, press, to continue on the
merry go round, leaving their spouses once more to the chores.
They start racing as youngsters with few ties, but as they
get older, marriage and kids come along.
Easy for the guys. The vast majority just expect to carry on
– not just in sport but on the business/work career ladder as well, leaving the
women to run the home. Is there resentment at this? Bound to be among women who
feel they have been denied their chance.
It’s the women who ferry the babies out to the big races won
by hubby. So he can stand on the podium showing off his trophy in his arms. The
little mite looks at this unfamiliar bloke – his dad – wondering who the hell
are you? Before remembering the picture
on the sideboard at home.
Was it German star Eric Zabel who started this trend? I seem
to recall him clutching an extra child each year on various podiums. Zabel won six consecutive points jerseys
(1996-2001).
Deignan determined to show a woman can do both, have family and racing career.
Twice she successfully put racing on hold to have children. Her husband, former Team Sky pro Philip retired at the end
of 2018 after a 14-year career and has held the fort since.
When she was a single lass, Lizzie – Armitstead, as she was then - made a big impression on me in the 2008
Olympic Games road race in Beijing, famously won by Britain’s Nicole Cooke.
She was one of the GB team dedicated to protecting Cooke in
that race – marking rivals, closing down breakaways; ready to offer up her bike
if necessary.
I recall a news report summarising the race afterwards
quoting Lizzie saying to Cooke in the closing stages: “Is there anything else I can do for you?”
Well! That spoke volumes to me and I thought, that is a
future champion speaking.
It showed maturity, confidence and strength. It showed total
commitment.
Four years later she won the silver medal in the London
Olympic road race.
And she went from strength to strength in stage races and
the single-day classics, world title races.
In Britain you will occasionally hear a rider say, as if to
justify their cycling career, that cycling is his/her job.
Surely, cycling is fun, your hobby?
Well, until you become full time, I suppose, and then it’s
no longer merely a hobby as you come under orders to perform, to justify
sponsorship, the need to train hard and to rest, be committed to a busy season
of events. You have to pay your bills, the mortgage.
Hard work, yes. But
come on, let’s not get carried away! One of the kicks of becoming a pro abroad is you get to ride to races in the
swell team coach, to be greeted by spectators
gawping, some wanting autographs. You become well-known, famous even. What an
ego trip, being the centre of attention.
On stage races after your work is done you don’t have to
lift a finger; hotel waiting, meals provided, time to relax. It must be a huge
ego trip.
That said, history reminds us that cycle racing abroad has
its roots as a working class sport. It
was always a means to an end.
Good prize money meant you could earn more racing than
working in a factory or in a pit, or any number of manual jobs. So although
clearly you competed because you enjoyed it, the financial reward was the major
factor, made the suffering worthwhile. Many riders depended upon it. It
provided them with an income, or supplemented it.
And the prize money at all levels is a lot more generous
than in Britain, and far reaching – down to at least 20th place.
I recall one British pro in the 1950s on a steep learning
curve racing in a fairly important local race in Brittany, a few rungs below international
standard. He’d got in a winning move and was clearly a contender until finding
the others, all former pros - ganging up to shut him out in the sprint. He was
furious, until he discovered what was going on.
No hard feelings, nothing personal, he was told afterwards.
But so and so over there is on hard times and needed the money! The riders
decided that if he could get in the move, he deserved to get his chance of
victory!
Race fixing, but with a benevolent touch.
These days riders, at least those at World Tour level, are a
lot better off.
Although pay varies considerably, with stars like Cavendish
on about three million euros a year. The lower ranks of male World Tour riders
are on basic salaries of around 40,000 euros.
But the elite women have had to fight hard for good pay and a decent
calendar. Women’s racing is now an exciting sport, with big fields and classy
riders.
However, it is only in recent years women have begun to earn
better money, 150,000 euros for the top women riders. But a survey reveals 25
per cent of women riders are still paid nothing.
There is prize money – if you can get it!
And after 20 years of racing, with age creeping up, form
difficult to maintain, coming home can be relief, especially from all the
travelling.
By contrast it is not that easy for the pros and top riders who
race at home. Most must balance a job
with racing and earn nothing like their overseas colleagues. I’ve heard jokes about finding
time for training and racing means letting the garden become overgrown, the
front gate left to hang. It can’t be
easy making ends meet.
There was one woman I recall - her husband was a top UK time triallist in the
1970s, she doubled as wife/manager – indignantly responding to a friend when he
said why don’t you get some decent furniture. Her retort? “Oi, you! ….Tyres come before furniture!”
Last I heard of them they were running a pub in Earls Court,
London.
