Bradley Wiggins reacted with shock to the news that Mark Cavendish may have run his last race as a professional.

An emotional Cavendish told Sporza that he may have run his last race at Ghent-Wevelgem on Sunday.

The 35-year-old Cavendish was scheduled to compete in Scheldeprij this Wednesday, but after Ghent-Wevelgem, he told Sporza, "This is probably the last race of my career."

Wiggins immediately helped Cavendish, backing the sprinter's phenomenal record over the past two decades, which includes 30 stages of the Tour de France, Milan-San Remo, the road rainbow jersey, and the Tour green jersey.

"I think it was very hard to watch," Wiggins said on the Eurosport podcast about Cavendish's post-race interview on Sunday.

"For a man who has achieved what he has achieved, leaving the sport is never desirable. What we want to see is him leaving at his best. He never stated that this would be his last year. It's not so much that Mark said, "I'm quitting here," as if the decision was taken away from him and made by someone else."

Cavendish is in the final year of a one-year contract with Bahrain McLaren, and team boss Rod Ellingworth told the media at the Giro d'Italia on Saturday that negotiations on a new deal are underway and that Cavendish will continue to race next season However, the rider's comments at Ghent-Wevelgem have cast doubt on that situation.

"There are a lot of things going on, like the breakup of the team, so we are keeping everything open at the moment, Ellingworth said. Cavendish and Wiggins ran together on the track and had great success together. The two were on the highroad in 2008, but teamed up again on the road for Team Sky in 2012, with Wiggins winning the Tour de France and Cavendish winning three sprint stages. Wiggins famously led Cavendish, wearing the yellow jersey, down the Champs-Elysées Boulevard.

"It's difficult because I always have a romantic vision of where I want to end up, but when I think about Mark, I don't necessarily want to win, but I want to see him celebrate his career and I don't want to see him crying because he's forced out after the race," Wiggins He said.

However, Cavendish contracted the Epstein-Barr virus in 2017 and has since struggled with his results for several seasons with the underachieving Dimension Data team. He supported Bahrain McLaren in last year's controversial Tour de France, but this season he supported Bahrain McLaren in the appointment of Mikel Landa.

Bahrain McLaren is looking for a second sponsor after it was confirmed that McLaren would withdraw after just one season on the World Tour. The team has been quiet in the transfer market, signing Jack Haig and only resigning a few players at this point. Wiggins, however, believes that even if Cavendish is not the force he once was, his friend and former teammate should be given a new contract.

"For me it's a no-brainer, and as long as you want, there should be a contract here," Wiggins said.

"I understand it doesn't always work out that way, but he will go down as one of the greatest cyclists of all time. It was very hard to watch,

"He knows that one day that day will come, and he has a great family when he retires. But he loves cycling and if he could race for another 10 years he would. But as we all know as cyclists, the day will come when we won't be able to do the same things we did 10 years ago. But there has to be a place for him somewhere. His presence is not to be underestimated."