Home > Bike Types > Road Bike

Cavendish Rumored Moving to Omega Pharma-Quickstep, Insists on Keeping Specialized Bike

Written by Tyler Benedict
mark cavendish might be moving to omega pharma-quickstep but insisting on taking his specialized bike with him
15 Comments
Support us! Bikerumor may earn a small commission from affiliate links in this article. Learn More

mark cavendish might be moving to omega pharma-quickstep but insisting on taking his specialized bike with himWe all have our favorite kit, favorite tires and favorite pre-race meals. They make us feel fast, slightly less jittery on the start line and give us that mental edge.

Apparently, Mark Cavendish has his favorite bike, and he doesn’t seem to want to let it go despite rumors he was moving to Pinarello-sponsored Team Sky. Pinarello isn’t willing to let it slide, so it now appears as though Cav is looking at Omega Pharma-Quickstep, which has indicated a willingness to switch from Eddy Merckx to Specialized at the request of current team member and TT World Champion Tony Martin.

If he did move, he’d be the third world champion on the team (alongside Martin and Stybar) and join a cadre of former and current Highroad teammates. All in all, he should feel right at home there. We’ll see what happens.
Tyler Benedict
11,282 articles

Tyler Benedict is the Founder of Bikerumor.com, where he’s been writing about the latest bikes, components, and cycling technology for almost two decades. Prior to that, Tyler launched and built multiple sports nutrition brands and consumer goods companies, mostly as an excuse to travel and ride in new places.

Based in North Carolina, Tyler also loves the Vanlife & family adventure travel and is always on the lookout for the next shiny new part and off-grid adventure.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

15 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Hector
Hector
13 years ago

Wouldn’t Cav be more awesome if he talked like Ali G.? I certainly think so.

0
Reply
Tom
Tom
13 years ago

I wonder how much Cav is getting paid. I’ve never met anyone who wanted to ride a Specialize that badly 🙂

0
Reply
Steve M
Steve M
13 years ago

Hopefully Pharma Lotto has a anti-male enhancement drug. Anything to make Cav less of a prick should be WADA approved.

0
Reply
Ethan
Ethan
13 years ago

It’s a good thing that Cav is putting his foot down. He didn’t win any races when his team made him ride a Scott.

0
Reply
burt
burt
13 years ago

Something tells me this has a lot more to do with $$$ than it has to do with the riding characteristics of a Specialized vs a Pinarello.

0
Reply
Tom
Tom
13 years ago

@burt: bingo!

0
Reply
mike
mike
13 years ago

Thanks Steve M – best comment I have seen on Cav all week LOL. Does this mean we have a world champion who is only capable of sprinting and only capable of sprinting one type of bike

0
Reply
Gillis
Gillis
13 years ago

I think has this has less to do with what Cav likes/wants and more to do with what Specialized wants: mainly a star rider with guaranteed winning potential. Since Pinarello won’t let go of its contract with Sky then Spesh is willing to pay whatever it takes to keep Cav on their bikes and in their helmets. That’s means paying Cav to move to a different team (than his preference, Sky) and sponsoring that whole team. Tony Martin be damned, WCTT or not, he doesn’t have the star power that Cav does.

0
Reply
D.
D.
13 years ago

Damn straight Cav should put his foot down – the F1 engineering of those Venges allows for better tracking than anything else when climbing mountains holding onto cars.

0
Reply
Russ Morin
Russ Morin
13 years ago

I assume Cavendish is talking about the McLaren Venge.

I would not be surprised at all if he feels he is giving up an edge if he cannot ride that bike anymore.

There is a lot of silly buzz that each company has with their race bikes, but that bike is incredible and no one has anything that touches it with a 10ft stick.

Im sure Specialized does not want to loose him as an athlete riding their products, but to be honest they have a thousand athletes right behind him in various sects of the sport.

Would you wanna give up your 18k bike?

0
Reply
Shred
Shred
13 years ago

Nope, it is not the bike. From people I know close to the situation, Cav does not like the bike. He much prefers the Scott. But the money from Spec is the deciding factor.

0
Reply
M
M
13 years ago

First thoughts to this headline, “Premadonna.” Sad. There are thousands of very, very good cyclists in the world who would HUMBLY take any amount of money and ride any machine to simply ride and compete. This lack of humility will catch up with the “world’s fastest man from the Isle of Man.”

0
Reply
M
M
13 years ago

And has he even tried a Dogma?!? Just give him one for a day – we’ll see a different headline the next day, I’m sure of it.

0
Reply
sdcbuzz
sdcbuzz
13 years ago

I have a S works Tarmac SL2, a Dogma,and a S works Venge.
By far the best bike for racing is the Venge. It is no wonder that Cav wants to stay on it.My Dogma cannot keep pace with the Venge.

0
Reply
Russ Morin
Russ Morin
13 years ago

The Dogma is an aesthetic machine. Very few aspects of its construction are functional, just “different looking” and “exotic.” Its the biggest waste of money for the Gucci factor of any bicycle out there.

Coincidence that Mark ways to stay riding a Spec, Tony Martin asked to change to Spec, and Levi is now changing to Quickstep to be “with the best equipment”

Keep thinking its a conspiracy. Everyone else will be riding the best bikes made 🙂

0
Reply

Subscribe Now

Sign up to receive BikeRumor content direct to your inbox.