2011 World Champion joins Sam Bennett’s Deceuninck Quick Step team

“©Deceuninck – Quick-Step Cycling Team / Wout Beel

Carrick on Suir’s Sam Bennett could have 30 time Tour de France stage winner Mark Cavendish as part of his lead out train this year.

The Manxman has joined the Deceuninck Quick Step team for the 2021 season having spent three years with them earlier in his career.

The 2011 World Champion was without doubt the world’s fastest sprinter at his peak but his performances faded after he was diagnosed with Epstein-Barr virus in 2018.


At the team launch in Spain this week Cavendish said he was determined to play his part in the Belgian outfit alongside Bennett:

“I just want to be part of a winning team, whether it’s me that crosses the line first, whether I can be collecting bottles or I can be leading out.

“I know that Deceuninck Quick Step is a team that I can fit into, with the philosophy of just everyone in for crossing the finish line first.

“I know I’m into the kind of last part of my career now and I just want to enjoy it.

“I know it’s going to be hard not to enjoy it here, that’s for sure.”