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Mark Cavendish

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Mark Cavendish
Personal information
Full nameMark Cavendish
NicknameCav
Manx Express
Little Cowboy
Cannonball
Height1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Weight69 kg (152 lb)
Team information
Current teamTeam Columbia
DisciplineRoad and track
RoleRider
Rider typeSprinter
Major wins
Template:FlagiconUCI World Championship, Madison (2005, 2008)
Tour de France, 4 stages (2008)
Giro d'Italia, 2 stages (2008)
Grote Scheldeprijs (2007, 2008)
Medal record
Track cycling
Representing  Great Britain
World Championships
Gold medal – first place 2005 Los Angeles Madison
Gold medal – first place 2008 Manchester Madison
Representing  Isle of Man
Commonwealth Games
Gold medal – first place 2006 Melbourne Scratch race

Mark Cavendish (born Douglas, Isle of Man 21 May 1985[1]) is a Manx and British racing cyclist who rides for UCI ProTeam Team Columbia. Originally a track cyclist in the madison, points race, and scratch race, he became a road racing cyclist in 2007. He made his track debut for Great Britain in the 2004 Moscow World Cup. As a road cyclist, he has risen to prominence as a sprinter. In the 2008 Tour de France he won four stages, unprecedented in British cycling. Cavendish started racing informally at 12, as a mountain-bike rider.[2] He lives in Manchester and Tuscany[3], Italy.


Early cycling

Cavendish started cycling on a BMX bike, then on a mountain bike. 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 13th birthday and got one. The very next day I went out and beat everyone."[2]

It was at that time that Cavendish met David Millar on the Isle of Man. Cavendish said:

He had come to ride a race. I've got a photo of him at home. He turned out really pleasant, giving me a racing cap and some photos of himself. Let's just say that that increased my desire even more. I had always wanted to be a racing cyclist. The Tour de France, when I was young, was everything. It was the only event shown on television. Those images, the suffering and the happiness, the sport. I particularly remember Guerini's win on the Alpe d'Huez after he had ridden into a photographer.[4] A few years later I was in my first race as a stagiaire [apprentice] with T-Mobile. It was unreal."[1]

Amateur cycling

Cavendish worked in a bank for two years after leaving school.[1] He said:

When I realised I could live on that, it changed a lot of things. I worked from 16 to 18 to put money aside, putting the the bike to one side. I didn't want to be a good junior. For me, to be world junior champion counted for nothing. My aim was to become a professional. When I'd got enough money, I left for the British track school. I started to progress, to learn, and also to win fairly quickly, it's true.[1]

He won a gold medal in the 2006 Commonwealth Games scratch race, riding for the Isle of Man; and gold medals in the 2005 world championship madison and 2005 European championship points race. He began road racing in 2005, riding the Tour of Berlin and Tour of Britain. Cavendish was taken to the UCI track world championship in Los Angeles to get experience racing as a senior, he was teamed with Rob Hayles in the 200-lap madison. They had not raced together before. They finished one lap ahead of the field to claim the gold medal, ahead of the Dutch and Belgian teams, giving Britain its fourth gold at the championships. It was Cavendish's first world champion's jersey.[5]

Cavendish began 2006 with the Continental team, Team Sparkasse. In June, he won two stages and the points and sprint competitions in the Tour of Berlin.[6]

He rode for the Isle of Man on the track at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, riding the scratch race. He lapped the field with four others. He passed Rob Hayles in the sprint, with Ashley Hutchinson of Australia second and James McCallum of Scotland second. The race time was 23m 5s, an average 51.9kmh.

Professional cycling

His success at the Tour of Berlin led to a post as a stagiare with T-Mobile from August until the end of the season.[7] His best result for T-Mobile in 2006 was in the Tour of Britain, where he came second three times and won the points classification. It brought a full professional contract for 2007 and 2008.[8]

Cavendish began 2007 "laboriously", said the daily sports paper, L'Équipe[3]. It quoted one of Cavendish's team-mates, Roger Hammond: "To be honest, he started the season so catastrophically that the staff were wondering what they could enter Mark for so that he could finish the race."[3]. He won the Grote Scheldeprijs, the Four Days of Dunkirk and the Volta a Catalunya and that brought selection for the Tour de France. He crashed in stages 1 and 2.[9][10] and abandoned on stage 8 as the race reached the Alps, having taken two top-ten placings but unhappy not to have had a top-five placing.[11] His debut season continued with 10 stage wins, ahead of Robbie McEwen's record eight in his first season as a professional, one behind Alessandro Petacchi.[12]

Then the pattern changed. "Everything fell into place," L'Équipe said.[3] Cavendish took his 11th win in early October, the Circuit Franco-Belge, to equal Petacchi's record. Among the wins were three in UCI ProTour events, the two in the Volta a Catalunya and one in the Eneco Tour of Benelux. Following his win there, Cavendish said:

I'm an old-school sprinter. I can't climb a mountain but if I am in front with 200 metres to go then there's nobody who can beat me."[13]

In 2008 Cavendish returned to the track, winning the Madison World Championships in Manchester with Bradley Wiggins, as Great Britain topped the medal table. [14][15] He returned to the track for the Olympic Games in Beijing, retiring from the 2008 Tour before stage 15 to prepare for the Olympics in August.[16] He and Team Columbia manager[17] Bob Stapleton agreed that riding the Alps was a risk to his hopes.[18] But Cavendish, with Bradley Wiggins, failed to win a medal, finishing joint eighth in the madison. He was the only British track cyclist not to win a medal.[19]Cavendish was left frustrated and the friends did not speak for months.[20] Following the Olympics, Cavendish remained angry with British Cycling for giving insufficient attention to the madison, though Chris Boardman stated that Cavendish's professional commitments also interfered with his build up to the Olympics. In November 2008, Cavendish revealed that he had no further plans to return to track cycling. [21]


On the road, Cavendish won his first stages of a grand tour, by picking two victories in the 2008 Giro d'Italia.[22]

"Cavendish is the fastest in the world in the last 50 metres of a sprint."

Daniele Bennati, May 2008[23]

Cavendish won four further stages in the 2008 Tour de France, his first coming in stage 5 from Cholet to Châteauroux.[24] He won again on stage 8, stage 12 and Stage 13, making him the first British rider to collect four stages in a single Tour. [25] Overnight, at the age of just 22, he became the "fourth most successful British professional in history", said The Independent.[26] After Stage 14, Cavendish abandoned the Tour to concentrate on the Beijing Olympics.

The rest of his season was also succesful, with a total of eleven further race wins, including three each at the Tour of Ireland which he abandoned on the final day, and the Tour of Missouri, winning his only points classification of the season at the latter. At the Tour de Romandie, Cavendish won the prologue time-trial, beating compatriot Bradley Wiggins and emphasising his short-distance time-trial abilities.

Personality

"I don't consider myself lucky to be a professional. I'm a pro because I worked for it.
I'm not a pro because I was lucky, but I'm lucky to be where I am."

Mark Cavendish, 19 July 2008[1]

Cavendish has been described as confident, even arrogant.[27] 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.[28]

The fact is, you look at the replays of my wins at the Tour, and I'm the fastest sprinter. I'm stating a fact. It's not just me saying 'I'm the fastest sprinter' without backing it up - I'm stating a fact, you know?
I don't see how that can be seen as arrogance when it's just telling the truth. But people can take me as they want? I don't give a shit really.[2]

Outside races, he is seen differently. "In ordinary life, he's a polite guy, a gentleman. He's the kind of guy who doesn't call you to moan in the way that most riders do. He rings to ask how you are or what you're doing," said Brian Holm, his directeur sportif.[3]

Riding style

The magazine Vélo described Cavendish as "a ball of nerves" when he raced.[28]. Its editor, Gilles Comte, said:

Cavendish has, above all, learned to make himself compact during effort. In full sprint, he doesn't move his shoulders or his head... He reminds you of kilometre riders when they're at full speed. And Frédéric Grappe[29] enthuses: 'I'm sure that in a kilometre he could ride 1m 5s, maybe 1m 4s, certainly, certainly.' [28]

The Briton adds to his ball of nerves a position very advanced on the bike, with his shoulders right above the bars. Frédéric Grappe compares him to an athletics sprinter pushing on the starting blocks. He said: 'Doing that, he optimises the muscular chain of his lower members to get the greatest possible power to the pedals.'[28]

What Cavendish has learned on the 'safety' of the track he has produced, entirely naturally, on the road. If the road had been his natural environment, he would never have learned to ride with his head so lowered, defying danger, because a part of his unconscious would have stopped him. A psychological brake would have operated to save him from dangers that the eye often sees too late.[28]

Career highlights

Major track results

UCI Track World Championships
2005 - Los Angeles, 1st, Madison (with Rob Hayles)
2008 - Manchester, 1st, Madison (with Bradley Wiggins)
Commonwealth Games
2006 - Melbourne, 1st Scratch Race
UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classics
2005 - Manchester, 2nd Team pursuit
2005 - Manchester, 3rd Madison
2005 - Sydney, 3rd, Madison (with Tom White)
2005 - Sydney, 2nd, Team pursuit 4:11.728/4:10.735, (with Brammeier, White, Clancy)
2007 - Beijing, 2nd, Madison (with Bradley Wiggins)
European Track Championships
2005 - 1st Points race
2005 - 4th Scratch Race
British National Track Championships
1999 - 1st Under 14 Omnium
2001 - 2nd Points Race - Junior
2001 - 3rd Scratch Race - Junior
2003 - 1st Kilo - Junior
2003 - 2nd Scratch Race - Junior
2003 - 2nd Sprint - Junior
2004 - 1st Team pursuit (with Chris Newton, Paul Manning & Tom White)
2004 - 2nd Madison (with Ed Clancy)
2005 - 1st Team pursuit (with Ed Clancy, Steve Cummings & Geraint Thomas)
2005 - 3rd Scratch Race
2008 - 1st Madison (with Peter Kennaugh)
Others
2004 - 1st Bremen UIV Talent Cup Madison (with Geraint Thomas)
2004 - 1st Munich UIV Talent Cup Madison (with Matt Brammeier)
2004 - 1st Revolution 6 Madison Kilometre, (Current record Holder) 57.457s (with Ed Clancy)
2007 - 1st Revolution 16, 15km Scratch Race

Major road results

2003
2nd British National Road Race Championships - Junior
2004
1st, Tour of Britain Support Circuit race, Westminster
2005 - Team Sparkasse
1st, Stage win, Tour of Berlin
1st British National Circuit Race Championships (Otley)
2006 - T-Mobile (Stagiare) and Team Sparkasse
1st, Stage 3, Course de la Solidarité Olympique
1st, Points classification, Tour of Britain
2nd, Tour of Berlin
1st, Stage 4
1st, Stage 5
2007 - T-Mobile
1st, Grote Scheldeprijs
1st, Points classification, Four Days of Dunkirk
1st, Stage 3,
1st, Stage 6,
3rd, Stage 2
1st, Points classification, Volta a Catalunya[30]
1st, Stage 2, Volta a Catalunya
1st, Stage 6, Volta a Catalunya[31]
1st, Stage 4, Ster Elektrotoer[32]
1st, Points classification Post Danmark Rundt
3rd, Stage 1[33]
2nd, Stage 4[34]
1st, Stage 6[35]
1st, Points classification Eneco Tour of Benelux
1st, Stage 2[36]
2nd, Stage 5[37]
1st, Points classification Tour of Britain[38]
1st, Sprints classification Tour of Britain[39]
1st, Prologue[40]
1st, Stage 1[41]
2nd, Stage 5[42]
1st, Stage 3, Circuit Franco-Belge
2008 - Team Columbia

References

  1. ^ a b c d e L'Équipe, France, 19 July 2008
  2. ^ a b c Procycling, UK, October 2008, p59
  3. ^ a b c d e L'Équipe, France, 13 July 2008
  4. ^ A spectator had stepped out from the side of the road to take a picture. Guerini assumed he would step back but he didn't.
  5. ^ BBC 28/3/05
  6. ^ "Cavendish shows he's the fastest in Berlin". British Cycling. 2006-06-06.
  7. ^ "Cavendish to Tour of Britain". T Mobile.
  8. ^ "Cavendish signs with T-Mobile". T Mobile.
  9. ^ Le Point, 15 July 2007
  10. ^ "Hoping for Happy Camping in Compeigne". T Mobile.
  11. ^ Mark Cavendish (2007-07-16). "'My race is over. I was trying to do things I am physically incapable of.'". The Guardian.
  12. ^ "Cavendish scores eighth season win". T Mobile.
  13. ^ www.cyclingnews.com, August 24th, 2007
  14. ^ BBC Cavendish and Wiggins strike Gold in Madison
  15. ^ BBC Watch Cav and Wiggins Victory
  16. ^ "Britain's Mark Cavendish pulls out of Tour de France before 15th stage". Canadian Broadcast Corporation. 2008-07-21. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  17. ^ T-Mobile ended its sponsorship and Columbia took over the team.
  18. ^ sport.be, 12 July 2007.
  19. ^ "Cav and Wiggins Miss Out on Medal". BBC Sport. 2008-08-19. Retrieved 2008-08-19.
  20. ^ "Wiggins eyes new Madison pairing". BBC Sport. 2008-10-22. Retrieved 2008-10-22.
  21. ^ The forgotten man Lweis, Tim; The Observer; 23-11-08; Accessed 08-12-08
  22. ^ Cavendish secures Giro stage win 13-05-08; BBC Sport; Accessed 14-05-08
  23. ^ Cavendish edged out of Giro stage BBC Sport; 22-05-08; Accessed 23-05-08
  24. ^ "Cavendish wins Stage 5 of Tour De France". BBC Sport. 2008-07-10.
  25. ^ "Cavendish Makes it 4 Tour Wins". Eurosport. 2008-07-18. Retrieved 2008-07-18.
  26. ^ Alasdair Fotheringham (2008-07-19). "Cavendish out on his own with fourth win". The Independent.
  27. ^ "Cavendish primed for Tour success". Eurosport UK. 2008-07-04. Retrieved 2008-07-13.
  28. ^ a b c d e Vélo, France, August 2008, p34
  29. ^ Coach and physiologist attached to the French national and to professional teams.
  30. ^ Rogers GC runner-up behind Karpets
  31. ^ Cavendish doubles up
  32. ^ British Cycling
  33. ^ Stage 1 Result
  34. ^ Stage 4 Result
  35. ^ Stage 6 Result
  36. ^ ENECO Tour Stage 2 Results
  37. ^ ENECO Tour Stage 5 Results
  38. ^ Tour of Britain Points competition final standings
  39. ^ Tour of Britain Sprints competition final standings
  40. ^ Prologue Stage Result
  41. ^ "Stage 1 Stage Result". www.tourofbritain.com. 2007-09-10. Retrieved September 11. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  42. ^ Stage 5 Stage Result
  43. ^ http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2008/sep08/missouri08/?id=stages/missouri082

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