It appears that Mark Cavendish's lead-out man for 2023 will be Max Richeze after the rider from Argentina dropped some serious hints that he will be racing next year with the Briton.
In an interview with specialist Italian website bici.Pro, Richeze, who appeared to have hung up his wheels after a final six-month spell with UAE Team Emirates, did not name Cavendish.
However, he did say he would be racing next season with a rider who did not go to the Tour de France this year and who was upset as a result.
The same unnamed rider and he had never coincided in the same team but the rider had always been a witness to how Richeze, a pro since 2006, had raced.
"We both have something to prove," said Richeze, who also claimed that the team manager of the squad had said negotiations to sign the 'mystery rider' "were like those for a football player".
Putting together the clues to this particular whodunnit, even discarding the football reference, it’s not tricky to reach the conclusion that Richeze will be racing for Mark Cavendish in a new team for both riders next year. Although, of course, he could be referring to someone else.
Further compounding the 'mystery', of course, is that Richeze, 39, was also linked to Cavendish in a report published in Ouest France yesterday, which said that both had now reached an agreement to race with French ProTeam B&B Hotels p/b KTM for 2023.
The team, however, subsequently told Cyclingnews that they denied all information in the report and had no further comment.
Wherever he may be racing in 2023, there is no doubt that Richeze is a well-established lead-out man, with two Giro d’Italia wins in 2007 to his name and experience working with top names like Fabio Jakobsen, Elia Viviani and Marcel Kittel. But his presence in professional cycling almost came to an abrupt end last winter.
Richeze told bici.Pro that he had come close to ending his career at the end of 2021, prior to an unexpected extension with UAE Team Emirates on a six-month contract for Fernando Gaviria in 2022.
However, his final Giro d’Italia this spring ended in an alleged falling-out with his team over extending the contract and, after his last race in the Elfstedenronde Brugge race in June, he returned to Argentina.
"In July I took a bit of a vacation, until the call from this rider friend came," he told the Italian website.
"I was happy. To have the chance to end things my way and because, when I weighed everything up, I know I can still go strong. And so I made the decision to continue."
As for why he was called up by the 'rider friend', Richeze told bici.Pro: "We had been talking for a long time. We always were in different teams, but he saw my work. And finally, now we will race together."
Richeze also claimed that the same rider "chose the riders, the staff and the coaches" at the team. "He really wants to go back to France. He wasn’t happy at not going this year. We both have something to prove."
B&B Hotels p/b KTM are expected to hold a press conference in Paris on October 26th, where the increasingly drawn-out soap opera over whether or not said 'mystery' rider has actually signed for the French squad will, hopefully, conclude.
