The Cavendish Journey
With the record-breaking 2024 Tour de France stage win by Mark Cavendish, his 35th, we take a look back to honor his exemplary career. Cavendish, unique as a rider and human being, was also unlike anyone else in the way he represented DeFeet. He viewed DeFeet as part of his own path in the sport, where he could align himself as a professional with the brands that he aspired to be part of when he was a kid and he chose to carry some of those same brands with him as he developed into his professional career. How do we know? He was cool enough to sit down and tell us these stories in the humble way only he can.
Back to the beginning. As the 2006 season dawned, DeFeet was a supplier to the Deutsche Telekom team. One of the earliest to spot the rising star of Cavendish, Telekom signed him and he was pulling on DeFeet socks for the first time as a pro. In 2008 he took his first four stage wins at the Tour. The Telekom team was in flux and transitioned to Team High Road run by entrepreneur Bob Stapleton. The combination was powerful for everyone involved, including DeFeet. Attending the team training camp in Napa and the Tour of California in 2009, we were able to spend more quality time with Cavendish and the rest of the team. We got to know Mark Renshaw, the pivotal, final leadout man for Cavendish. Renshaw’s quiet demeanor and work ethic belied his tenacity in the final kilometers of so many races over the years as he clawed for every inch to give Cavendish the best chance for an opening.
Mark Renshaw, the Australian leadout man who so often delivered Cavendish to final 400 meters in position to win.
2007 through 2011 were gravy years for Cavendish and DeFeet. The list of wins, streaks and jerseys is long, including the World Road Race Championships in 2011.
Triumphant at the 2011 World Championship road race in his signature DeFeet socks.
He had won his first 20 stages of the Tour de France exclusively in DeFeet. All great things must come to an end at some point, and as the sun set on the 2011 season Cavendish would move to Team SKY, where he won three stages at the Tour in 2012.
After just one year apart, 2013 was a homecoming. Cavendish joined Team Quickstep, where DeFeet had already been a long-time supplier. From 2013 to 2015 he won another three stages of the Tour.
In 2016 Cavendish looked to be entering the twilight of his career. Many were writing him off. He departed Quickstep to join a new formation called Dimension Data. He added four more stages at the Tour in 2016, but he wasn’t able to find that form in 2017 or 2018. 2019 was his final year with Dimension Data, and in 2021 he moved to Team Bahrain McLaren. These were the leanest years for Cavendish. It appeared as though those calling for his demise had been right.
Cavendish gets a handup from Quicksted Director Sportif Brian Holm at the Tour of California.
Mark Cavendish is not the sort to be written off easily. Historically, when a field sprinter loses 2-3% of their final ‘boost’, they are pronounced “finished”. In nearly every case with every other famous sprinter - particularly as they aged beyond 30, this had proven true. Cavendish is not every other sprinter, and 2021 would prove to be a special year. Not surprisingly, the ones to provide a spot on his team and provide the encouragement to re-emerge were Patrick Lefevre and Team Quickstep. In a Tour de France that shocked the World, Cavendish was back in 2021 to win four stages and equal Eddy Merckx’ total of 34 career stage wins.
It looked as though he would end his career in lockstep with Merckx. As we now know, that changed at the 2024 Tour de France. Cavendish rope-a-doped through the difficult opening stages just trying to make the time cuts. In Stage 5 though, Cavendish left no doubt as he blasted through the front of the bunch in the final two hundred meters, coiling into his signature, low slung, grinding sprint. At 39 years old, Cavendish had finally eclipsed Merckx. Very different riders, very different ways of going about their wins, but very similar in their Tour de France stage counts.
DeFeet is honored to have been part of the career of Mark Cavendish. Across a span of 19 years, through so many highs and lows, Cavendish has been one of those unforgettable riders that always did it his way. His emotions, raw and bare to the world, showed everyone what it was like to be inside the head of a field sprinter. THE field sprinter. Cycling would not have been the same these last two decades without Cavendish. Those chapters in the history of DeFeet would not have been as entertaining. Being part of The Cavendish Journey made each year better, including the ones, few and far between, when he wasn’t wearing DeFeet.
