Mark Cavendish

Early life and amateur career

Cavendish was born in Douglas, Isle of Man, the son of David, a native of the Isle, and Adele from Yorkshire, England. He began riding BMX at an early age, racing at the National Sports Centre in Douglas.

He joined his local club in Douglas at the age of nine with his determination soon becoming apparent. "He didn't like losing", said Dot Tilbury, his former coach; "He started to win and often he would lap the other riders in the field".

He said: "I was always riding a bike, getting dropped in little races." "My mum would laugh at me, and I said it was because all my mates had mountain bikes, so I asked for a mountain bike for my thirteenth birthday and got one. The very next day I went out and beat everyone." It was at that time that Cavendish met British cyclist David Millar at a race on the Isle of Man, who was an inspiration to him. Cavendish worked in a bank for two years after leaving school to earn enough money for an attempt at a professional career.

He gained a place as one of the first six riders selected for British Cycling's Olympic Academy for junior riders in 2003 having almost been rejected because of his relatively poor performance in stationary bike tests. Coaches Rod Ellingworth, John Herety and Simon Lillistone lobbied British Cycling Performance Director Peter Keen to include him because of his potential. Although he initially struggled because of a lack of fitness, he recorded his first win in senior competition in March 2004; in the Girvan Three Day race he managed to latch back onto the lead group after being dropped over a climb before winning the finishing sprint ahead of Julian Winn. Whilst at the academy, he won two gold medals at the 2003 Island Games.

Cavendish progressed well at the academy. Ellingworth said, "Cav kind of liked it" when asked about the rigid rules and "dictatorship style" of the academy. The junior riders lived on £58 a week and financial management became a part of life at the academy as well as cooking and cleaning. Cycling Weekly described the academy as "a boot camp style training regime" controlled by Ellingworth, who, after finding out they had skipped a three-hour training ride, made the juniors complete four hours hard training at night.

Professional career

Team Sparkasse (2005–2006)

Cavendish turned professional in 2005 with Team Sparkasse, a feeder squad for the T-Mobile Team. During this time, he rode the Tour de Berlin and the Tour of Britain. He remained with the team into 2006, winning two stages and the points and sprint competitions in June's Tour de Berlin. He rode for the Isle of Man on the track at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, riding the scratch race. He lapped the field with three others: England's Rob Hayles; Ashley Hutchinson of Australia; and James McCallum of Scotland. Hayles then led him out for the sprint to win gold for the Isle of Man.

T-Mobile Team (2006–2011)

His success at the 2006 Tour de Berlin led to him being a stagiaire with the T-Mobile Team from August until the end of the season. His best result on the road was in the Tour of Britain where he came second twice and third once, and won the points classification. He signed an initial two-year contract to join the team full-time from the 2007 season.

His breakthrough came at the 2007 Scheldeprijs race in Belgium, which he won. He went on to win stages at the Four Days of Dunkirk and the Volta a Catalunya leading to his selection for the Tour de France. He crashed on stages one and two and abandoned the race on stage eight as it reached the Alps. Although he had taken two top-ten placings he was unhappy not to have had a top-five placing. Cavendish took his eleventh win in early October at the Circuit Franco-Belge. Among the wins were three in UCI ProTour events—two in the Volta a Catalunya and one in the Eneco Tour.

In 2008, Cavendish returned to the track for the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Manchester. Cavendish was brought in to partner Bradley Wiggins in the madison, as Hayles failed a routine blood test, and was subsequently banned. At around halfway through the race they appeared to be out of contention, with their closest rivals all gaining a lap. With thirty-five laps left to race, Wiggins launched an attack which helped them reach the field ten laps later. They took the lead due to the superior points they had collected in the sprints. They held on to win the gold medal, finishing with nineteen points, ahead of Germany on thirteen.

On the road, Cavendish won his first stages of a Grand Tour with two victories in the Giro d'Italia and four stages in the Tour de France, the first of which was on stage five. He won also stages eight, twelve and thirteen. After stage fourteen, Cavendish abandoned the Tour to concentrate on the Olympics in Beijing. He paired with Wiggins in the madison, and as the reigning world champions, they were favourites for the gold medal but finished ninth. Cavendish felt Wiggins had not performed to the best of his ability in the madison. The rest of his season was successful, with a total of eleven further race wins, including three each at the Tour of Ireland and the Tour of Missouri where he won his only points classification of the season. At the Tour de Romandie, he won the opening time trial, beating compatriot Wiggins and emphasising his short-distance time-trial abilities.

Team Sky (2012)

Amid much speculation, it was announced in October 2011 that Cavendish would join Team Sky for the 2012 season along with HTC–Highroad teammate Bernhard Eisel. Cavendish began his 2012 season at the Tour of Qatar. After recovering from illness, he won stage three—his first victory for Team Sky. He won stage five later in the week, moving back into the top ten of the overall classification. He finished the race in sixth place, despite crashing on the final stage. Although he did not win any stages at the Tour of Oman, having suffered an injury in the first stage, he returned to win Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne. Cavendish targeted a second victory in Milan–San Remo in March, but was dropped on Le Manie, 100 kilometres (62 miles) from the finish. He did not manage to finish high up in the remaining Classics. In the Tour de Romandie, he showed his ability in short time trials by finishing third in the prologue but did not take any stage wins.

A week later, Cavendish took his fifth win of the season by winning the sprint on stage two of the Giro d'Italia. The following day, he was again in contention for victory on stage three, but in the sprint, Androni Giocattoli–Venezuela's Roberto Ferrari aggressively switched lanes, clipping Cavendish and sending him to the ground, causing other riders to fall including overall leader Taylor Phinney (BMC Racing Team). Cavendish later tweeted that Ferrari should be "ashamed to take out Pink, Red & World Champ jerseys". He recovered from minor injuries to win stages five and thirteen. Cavendish completed the Giro d'Italia, but lost the points classification to Team Katusha's Joaquim Rodríguez by a single point. He did win the minor Azzurri d'Italia and stage combativeness classifications. In mid-June, Cavendish competed in the Ster ZLM Toer and despite failing to win any of the four mostly flat stages, Cavendish's consistency ensured that he won the overall general classification—the first of his professional career—by eight seconds.

In July, Cavendish won stage two of the Tour de France, his twenty-first tour stage win. Cavendish was in contention for another stage victory on stage four, but was taken out in a large crash in the final 3 kilometres (1.9 miles). He then took on a supporting role as Team Sky attempted to win the overall race with Wiggins. He was seen carrying bottles for teammates and setting the pace on a Pyrenean climb. The team repaid Cavendish for his hard work by helping chase down a breakaway on stage eighteen, although Cavendish alone had to chase down Rabobank rider Luis León Sánchez and Nicolas Roche of Ag2r–La Mondiale in the last 200 metres (220 yd) to take his 22nd Tour stage win, equalling André Darrigade. Cavendish won the final stage of the Tour de France on the Champs-Élysées for a record fourth successive year—the most successful sprinter in Tour history with twenty-three stage wins. He also became the first person to win on the Champs-Élysées in the rainbow jersey. During the Tour, French newspaper L'Équipe named Cavendish the Tour de France's best sprinter of all time.

Omega Pharma–Quick-Step (2013–2015)

In October 2012, he signed a three-year contract with Belgian team Omega Pharma–Quick-Step from the 2013 season.

He started the 2013 season by winning the opening stage of the Tour de San Luis in Argentina on his début for Omega Pharma–Quick-Step. He then went on to win the Tour of Qatar, with four consecutive stage victories out of six. In March, he won the second stage of the Three Days of De Panne. In April he finished in second place to defending champion Marcel Kittel of Argos–Shimano at the Scheldeprijs; he faded in the final kilometre, but recovered to launch his sprint from around twenty riders back with 200 metres (220 yd) remaining. In May, Cavendish won the opening stage of the Giro d'Italia, taking the pink jersey for the third time in his career. He went on to win stage six from a bunch sprint after a pan-flat stage. This victory moved him above Robert Millar to the top of Cycling Weekly's all-time ranking of British professional riders. He also won stage twelve, claiming his 100th professional victory and reclaiming the lead in the points classification. The next day, he timed his finish perfectly to win stage thirteen, his fourth victory of the 2013 race. His fifth victory of the Giro came on the final stage, wrapping up the points classification which he had led for much of the race. By doing so, Cavendish became only the fifth rider to win the points classification in all three Grand Tours.

In June, Cavendish won the British National Road Race Championships, held around a circuit in Glasgow city centre. He overtook David Millar on the home straight and held off a challenge by Ian Stannard, who recovered from a puncture in the penultimate lap to claim silver. In July, he won stage five of the Tour de France, giving him twenty-four career Tour stage wins. He was greeted on the line by André Darrigade, the previous record holder for most Tour stages won by a sprinter. In the eleventh stage, a 33-kilometre (21-mile) individual time trial, a spectator doused Cavendish with urine. On stage 13 from Tours to Saint-Amand-Montrond, he rode with a 14-man breakaway with 30 kilometres (19 miles) to go and out-sprinted Peter Sagan to win the stage—his 25th Tour de France stage win. Later that month Cavendish decided to ride the Danmark Rundt, winning the race's final stage. In September, he returned to the track for the first time since the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, competing in the International Belgian Open in Ghent. Finishing second in the scratch race and third in the madison with Owain Doull, Cavendish had not ruled out the prospect of competing in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro having earned enough points to qualify for the UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classics. Returning to the road, Cavendish won stage four of the Tour of Britain, outsprinting Elia Viviani in Llanberis. He repeated the win three days later, again out-sprinting Viviani to take stage seven in Guildford. He also won the final stage in London the next day.

Team Dimension Data (2016–2019)

In September 2015, it was announced that Cavendish had signed for MTN–Qhubeka – to be renamed as Team Dimension Data – for the 2016 season, along with his Etixx–Quick-Step teammate Renshaw and Eisel, his former teammate from HTC–Highroad and Sky. The team principal, Douglas Ryder, described the move as "a big step forward for the team."

In February, Cavendish rode the Tour of Qatar, taking the opening stage and the general classification for the second time. Cavendish wanted to win a medal at the Olympics in the omnium. In preparation he competed at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships; he placed sixth in the omnium, and won the madison with Bradley Wiggins. In April he rode the Tour of Croatia, winning stage two. On 2 July, he won the opening stage of the Tour de France in a sprint finish at Utah Beach, taking his twenty-seventh stage win, and donning the yellow jersey for the first time. He lost the jersey the following day when Sagan won stage two. Cavendish won stage 3 in a photo finish with André Greipel in Angers, equalling Bernard Hinault's tally of 28 stage wins and put him in the lead of points classification. He won stage six in a bunch sprint at Montauban, ahead of Marcel Kittel and Daniel McLay, to increase his lead. Cavendish lost the green jersey on the tenth stage, when Sagan was part of a breakaway that led the race until the end – while also finishing second to Michael Matthews at the finish line in Revel and won the stage's intermediate sprint. Cavendish went on to take his fourth stage of the race, and his thirtieth Tour de France stage victory on stage fourteen, passing Alexander Kristoff and Sagan at the finish at Parc des Oiseaux in Villars-les-Dombes. He quit the race on the second rest day before the mountainous stages citing his need to prepare for the Olympics.

Having competed in two previous Olympics, Cavendish finally won his first medal, finishing second in the men's omnium. Returning to the roads, Cavendish was seen to be one of the favourites for the road race at the UCI Road World Championships in Qatar, but was out-sprinted for the victory by Sagan and finished with the silver medal, a result that left him "disappointed". He concluded his road season with two stage wins and the points classification at the Abu Dhabi Tour, after which he returned to track racing, teaming up with Bradley Wiggins to race the Six Days of London. The pair narrowly lost to Kenny De Ketele and Moreno De Pauw in the final moments of the sixth day, finishing in second position overall. The pair went on to race at the Six Days of Ghent, this time beating De Ketele and De Pauw to take the overall victory.

Bahrain–McLaren (2020)

In late October 2019, Cavendish signed with Bahrain–McLaren for the 2020 season alongside Mikel Landa, Wout Poels, and Dylan Teuns. The announcement was followed by success in the 2019 Six Days of London where Cavendish, along with Owain Doull, finished second to Elia Viviani and Simone Consonni. At the beginning of 2020 Cavendish had his hopes of competing in the madison at the Tokyo Olympics dashed when he was not selected in the British squads for the final round of the UCI Track Cycling World Cup in Milton, Ontario, Canada, or the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Berlin, rendering him ineligible to be selected for the Games. He made his debut for Bahrain–McLaren at the Tour of Saudi Arabia in February, where he helped teammate Phil Bauhaus to two stage wins and the overall win, after Cavendish crashed twice on the second stage of the race.

During the season he alternated between riding as a sprinter and as a lead out man for teammates, but his racing programme was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. After he was not selected for the delayed Tour de France, he said he felt he was not ready for it, due to a lack of racing and the race's particularly tough mountainous route; he backed teammate Landa's bid for the yellow jersey. He rode in the delayed cobbled classics in the autumn, making a number of early breakaways. At Gent–Wevelgem he stated in an interview with Sporza that the race might be his last. He subsequently clarified that the comment related to rumours about subsequent Flemish classic races being cancelled, which turned out not to be the case: after riding in Scheldeprijs, the Tour of Flanders and the Three Days of Bruges–De Panne he declared in an interview with Het Nieuwsblad that he had had "(his) best racing month for a long time" and indicated that he wanted to continue racing "for a few more seasons".

Deceuninck–Quick-Step (2021–2022)

Following reports that he was due to retire due to difficulty in securing a World Tour contract, in December 2020, Cavendish announced his return to Deceuninck–Quick-Step for the 2021 season. His contract was for the UCI WorldTeam minimum salary of €40,000, and he had to bring his own sponsor to the team.

Having recorded his first podium finish since 2019 with a second-place finish to Tim Merlier at the Grote Prijs Jean-Pierre Monseré, Cavendish took his first four professional victories since 2018 in April, winning stages 2, 3, 4 and 8 of the Tour of Turkey. In June he took another win in the fifth and final stage of the Tour of Belgium, triumphing over a field which included such names as Caleb Ewan, Merlier, Pascal Ackermann, Dylan Groenewegen and Nacer Bouhanni. Cavendish's teammate, Sam Bennett had an increasingly strained relationship with the team's management, and when Bennett was ruled out of the Tour de France following a training injury, Cavendish was drafted in as the team's lead sprinter. He won stages four, six, ten and thirteen of the Tour, bringing his total of Tour de France stage victories to 34, making him the joint record holder for Tour stage wins along with Eddy Merckx. On the race's final stage to the Champs-Élysées, Cavendish missed out on the win, finishing third behind Wout van Aert and Jasper Philipsen. He won the points classification for the second time in his career, ten years after his first win in 2011. Cavendish was backed by the "strongest sprint train in the race" with Michael Mørkøv as his lead out man.

Cavendish's 2021 season was abruptly ended by a crash in the final Madison session of the Six Days of Ghent track event. Cavendish was closely following world Madison champion Lasse Norman Hansen, behind Gerben Thijssen and Kenny De Ketele when Thijssen slipped on a damp patch on the track sending De Ketele up the banking to sweep away Hansen's front wheel, bringing down both Hansen and Cavendish. Cavendish was taken to the intensive care unit of Ghent University Hospital suffering from broken ribs and a punctured lung. In December, Cavendish extended his contract at Deceuninck–Quick-Step for another year.

Cavendish opened his season in the Middle East with the Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team at the Tour of Oman. He finished second to Fernando Gaviria on the opening stage, but the following day he won the sprint for stage 2, taking the lead in both the general and points classifications. He finished the six-day event in fourth place in the points classification following a points deduction after stage 5, and being blocked by Maximiliano Richeze in the sprint for stage 6. Later in February, Cavendish won stage 2 of the UAE Tour. In March, Cavendish became the first British cyclist to win the Italian classic Milano–Torino. After racing at an average speed of 44 kilometres per hour (27 miles per hour) over a new 199-kilometre (124-mile) course from Magenta to Rivoli, Cavendish out-sprinted Nacer Bouhanni and Alexander Kristoff to take his first victory in Italy since a stage win at the 2014 Tirreno–Adriatico.

Astana Qazaqstan Team (2023–2024)

Having reportedly signed a contract with the B&B Hotels–KTM team prior to its disbanding, Cavendish started 2023 as a free agent. In mid-January, he signed a contract with the Astana Qazaqstan Team. He made his first starts with the team in the Middle East, in Oman at the Muscat Classic and the Tour of Oman, before moving onto the United Arab Emirates with a start at the UAE Tour, where he was part of a late-race break on the opening stage. During the Giro d'Italia, Cavendish announced his intention to retire at the end of the 2023 racing season. A week later, Cavendish out-sprinted his rivals to take the 21st and final stage of the Giro d'Italia in Rome, taking his tally of stage wins at the race to 17. He sought to become the record holder for stage wins at the Tour de France, but his best result was second to Jasper Philipsen on stage 7. He abandoned the race the following day, after a fall during stage 8. In October of that year, he announced he had reconsidered his decision to retire, and would stay with Astana Qazaqstan Team for the 2024 season, in the hope of breaking the Tour de France stage win record.

Cavendish started the 2024 season at the Tour Colombia, where he won the fourth stage of the race, ahead of his former teammate Fernando Gaviria. He also won the second stage of the Tour de Hongrie, and featured as part of a breakaway on the final stage of the race. While racing at the Tour de Suisse, it was announced that Cavendish was to be knighted in the 2024 Birthday Honours. At the Tour de France, and having been caught behind a crash during the sprint on stage 3, Cavendish's next opportunity was on stage 5, finishing in Saint-Vulbas. Moving between the wheels in the sprint, Cavendish launched his sprint from behind Pascal Ackermann, and was able to fend off Philipsen for his record 35th Tour de France stage win. The following day, it was reported that Cavendish had received a warning from race officials for deviating from his sprinting line during the sprint. It was his only stage win during the race; he would later be penalised and fined for drafting during stage 6, relegated on stage 12 for deviating during the final sprint, and ultimately ended the race as the lanterne rouge, finishing last in the general classification. Having received his knighthood at Windsor Castle from William, Prince of Wales in October, Cavendish won the Tour de France Singapore Criterium in his final cycling start, retiring with 165 professional victories. He was not nominated for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award, but instead received the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award.

Riding style and incidents

Cavendish has an aggressive riding style that has been compared to a sprinter pushing on the starting blocks. At the 2009 Tour de France, the points he gained in the intermediate sprint in stage fourteen were removed after he was judged to have driven Thor Hushovd too close to barriers on the course. After stage nineteen, he said he was "embarrassed" for his comments about "deserving" green jersey wearer Hushovd. After stage four of the 2010 Tour de Suisse, Cavendish was found to be at fault for a crash involving himself and Heinrich Haussler during the end of the sprint stage. The crash caused Haussler, Arnaud Coyot and Lloyd Mondory to quit the race because of their injuries, though Cavendish was able to continue. Cavendish received a thirty-second penalty and a CHF200 fine. The start of the next stage was disrupted by fellow riders protesting Cavendish's riding and style, and what they said was a lack of respect from him.

His riding style resulted in organisers of the 2013 Boxmeer Criterium in the Netherlands to announce he was not welcome due to an incident during stage ten of the 2013 Tour de France, when he bumped Dutch rider Tom Veelers in a sprint finish, sending the Argos-Shimano rider tumbling. Another instance of dubious safety concerns while riding was witnessed on the opening stage of the 2014 Tour de France as Cavendish caused Simon Gerrans to crash while trying to push him out of the way during the sprint. In 2016, Cavendish accepted responsibility and apologised for the crash of South Korean cyclist Park Sang-hoon at the men's omnium event at the Olympics when an incident between them led to Park being thrown from his bike. After the crash, Park appeared unconscious and did not move while paramedics administered first aid; he was eventually taken away on a stretcher.

Cavendish has been described as confident, even arrogant. In 2008 he said: "When journalists at the Tour de France ask me if I am the best sprinter, I answer 'Yes', and that's seen as arrogance, but if they don't ask me, I don't say I'm the best sprinter in the world." He has an eidetic memory for the details of race routes. In a 2013 interview with Jonathan Liew, he said: "If I do a circuit then after three laps I could tell you where all the potholes were." As a test, Liew asked him to recount the close of his win in San Remo five years earlier. It took him five minutes to recite every detail of the last 10 kilometres (6.2 miles). This is an obvious asset to Cavendish in planning and timing his races.

Personal life

On 5 October 2013, Cavendish married model Peta Todd in London, making him stepfather to her son from a previous relationship. Cavendish and Todd have four children together. He has three homes: one on the Isle of Man, which he said will always be his real home; one in Ongar, Essex; and a training base in Quarrata, Tuscany, Italy. The Cavendish family were robbed at knifepoint in their home in Essex in November 2021, and two men were jailed at Chelmsford Crown Court in February 2023 for their involvement in the robbery.

In January 2015 Cavendish announced the creation of the Rise Above Sportive, a cyclosportive to be held in Chester and North Wales in August 2015. In November 2015, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in science by the University of Chester for his contribution to cycling. He was diagnosed with Epstein–Barr virus in April 2017 and spent months out of action before returning to race the 2017 Tour de France. In August 2018 he was diagnosed with the virus a second time and withdrew from training and racing to recuperate.

Memoirs

In June 2009, his autobiography Boy Racer, which covered his career up to that year, was published by Ebury Press. At a press conference in London ahead of the 2009 Tour de France, Cavendish explained the book was "more a biography of last year's Tour stage wins" than an autobiography. His "biggest motivation for writing it had been to explain himself better", to counter the way he came across during interviews immediately after races. In an interview with Cyclingnews.com, Cavendish said the book would "cause some controversy" before stating it is positive in respect to others. The book addresses many events including an offer of more money from elsewhere to leave Team Columbia–High Road in 2008, which Cavendish declined; relationships with teams and riders; and significant moments for him of some races. Each chapter describes a stage from the 2008 Tour de France stages one to fourteen, using other autobiographical moments from Cavendish's life. In November 2013 his second book At Speed was also published by Ebury. Following on from Boy Racer it covered the part of his career from 2010 to 2013. In November 2021, Ebury Press published Tour de Force: My history-making Tour de France, which detailed Cavendish's return to success at the 2021 Tour.

Commemorative stamps

In December 2024, the Isle of Man Post Office published a collection of stamps honouring Cavendish. The collection, released as a sheetlet, was an amalgamation of three previous stamp issues featuring the cyclist, showcasing images capturing key moments throughout the years. They included representing the Isle of Man at the Commonwealth Games, being part of Great Britain's Olympic team, and competing in the Tour de France. The collection also featured details about his career and famous victories.