Mark Cavendish to wear Oakley glasses despite Scicon sponsor clash

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The fate of Mark Cavendish has been a rumbling story for the early part of this season, and even when he finally signed for Astana Qazaqstan, one thing was conspicuously absent from all the team's press and social media material: sunglasses.

Now, though, photos have arisen from the Muscat Classic, where Cavendish is making his debut for his new team, sporting a pair of gold Oakley Katos. 

Meanwhile, his teammates are all wearing glasses made by Scicon, Astana Qazaqstan's official eyewear sponsor. 

Cyclingnews understands that there had been a clash between Scicon and Cavendish's career-long personal eyewear sponsor Oakley, with whom he has developed the perennially popular Jawbreaker model, and latterly, the Kato.

There was some delay in the announcement of Cavendish's move to Astana, and although the court case concerning a knifepoint robbery at the Manxman's home was understood to be the primary reason for that, Cyclingnews understands a hurdle to his signature related to the inevitable eyewear sponsorship clash. 

The issue had seemingly not been completely ironed out by the time he was unveiled as an Astana rider in mid-January. The Instagram post above shows riders at a sunny Spanish training camp in full gear, each one in a set of Scicon shades, besides Cavendish, left to squint into the sun up the Coll de Rates.

However, with Cavendish's first race of the season now under his belt, it appears sponsorship alignment issues have been resolved, as Cavendish has broken cover in his Oakleys. Cyclingnews has reached out to Scicon for comment, who at the time of publishing, has not responded.

This isn't the first time Cavendish has been seen using different equipment to his teammates. During his season at Bahrain Victorious in 2020, he wore Oakley Jawbreakers, despite the rest of the team using Rudy Project eyewear.

Personal sponsorship deals are not uncommon, with Wout van Aert and Tom Pidcock both sporting Red Bull-branded helmets in various events.

Cavendish also set out for the Muscat Classic wearing shoes made by Nike, another long-term personal sponsor. The Astana Qazaqstan squad has no official shoe sponsor, leaving riders to choose whichever brand they like.

Cavendish also wore Nike shoes at his old HTC team and at Team Sky in 2012 but wore Specialized - another brand he has a strong relationship with - during his two spells at QuickStep, from 2013 to 2015 and 2021 to 2022.

Cavendish stands alone not only in the team but in the entire peloton by using Nike footwear.