Mark Cavendish was back in “racing”
action last night, winning the only post-Tour de France criterium that will
take place in Belgium this week because the others are off due to the pandemic.
Cavendish (Deceuninck-QuickStep) raced the Roeselare criterium last night, just 48 hours after the grueling Tour de France finished in Paris. He raced in his Tour points classification winner’s kit, and beat Tim Merlier and Jasper Philipsen, both Alpecin Fenix.
The top riders who have performed at the Tour de France ride the post-Tour criteriums, getting paid to appear in what are exhibition races. They get very generous appearance money – up to €50,000 for the biggest names at the biggest events.
Most of the organisers get their money back, and
hopefully make some profits, via sponsorship and by charging fans to enter the
circuit and watch the race.
Advertisement
Related News
The outcome is rigged; Cavendish’s win, for example, set
up to ensure the fans who paid in saw him winning and so went home happy.
That’s the theory anyway.
The organiser of the post-Tour crit in Antwerp, Roland
Descheemaeker, a few years back revealed a little about riders’ demands.
He said he had tried to sign up both Chris Froome and Peter Sagan, but said Sagan was looking for €32,000 and Froome was seeking between €45,000 and €50,000. In the end, the riders were too expensive, though other promoters pay those fees.
.@MarkCavendish on the top spot again. pic.twitter.com/XoQic3mjeJ
— Deceuninck-QuickStep (@deceuninck_qst) July 20, 2021
Topics
