Long-distance discussion between Mark Cavendish and Patrick Lefevere .

The reason is an excerpt from the former rider's autobiography, "Believe: Achieving the Impossible," which also discusses his second stint with Deceuninck-Quick-Step , which he joined in 2021 after a difficult season with Bahrain-McLaren. Although the year hadn't started well, the Briton won four stages and the green jersey at the Tour de France , equaling the record of 34 victories at the Tour , which he would later break three years later with Astana. Then, in 2022, the sprinter wasn't taken to the Tour by his team, Quick-Step, despite having won a stage at the Giro d'Italia just a couple of months earlier. Relations with the team were evidently at an all-time low, as confirmed in several passages of the autobiography. “Patrick Lefevere made fun of me,” Cavendish wrote in his book. “In 2020, Patrick, for whom I had ridden in the past, asked me to send him a CV before considering signing me. He spent months there making me sweat again. I felt like I was being made a fool of.” Furthermore, the former sprinter complained of a misunderstanding over the 2022 contract. Cavendish believed he deserved the €500,000 salary agreed upon in 2020, especially after his stage wins and the green jersey at the Tour de France, but, to his surprise, his salary was halved. Ultimately, the parties agreed on the €500,000, but Cavendish maintained that “somehow Patrick has always found a way to make sure he feels like a winner, and here he did it again,” he wrote.

Patrick Lefevere 's inevitable response arrived today, in the pages of Het Nieuwsblad : "I find what Mark wrote deplorable. I bailed him out of trouble back then and gave him a contract when no one wanted him anymore. And now I have to receive this. Mark received everything we agreed upon at the time, just like all the riders who have been part of our team. There are a number of inaccuracies in his account that I don't want to dwell on. Ingratitude is clearly the world's reward..."

Photo: Sprint Cycling Agency