Mark Cavendish

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**Mark Cavendish**
Personal information

Cavendish while at Team Sparkasse
Full name	Mark Cavendish
Nickname	Cav Manx Express
Date of birth	May 21, 1985 (1985-05-21) (age 23)
Country	United Kingdom0( Isle of Man)
Height	1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Weight	69 kg (150 lb)
Team information
Current team	Team High Road
Discipline	Road and track
Role	Rider
Rider type	Sprinter
Professional team(s)
2006 2007 2008–	Team Sparkasse T-Mobile Team Team High Road
Major wins
World Championship, Madison (2005, 2008) Giro d'Italia, 2 stages Grote Scheldeprijs (2007, 2008)
Infobox last updated on:
May 13, 2008

Medal record

Track cycling

Competitor for Great Britain

World Championships

Gold	2005 Los Angeles	Madison

Gold	2008 Manchester	Madison

Competitor for Isle of Man

Commonwealth Games

Gold	2006 Melbourne	Scratch race

Mark Cavendish (born 21 May 1985) is a Manx racing cyclist who currently rides for UCI ProTeam Team High Road. Originally a track cyclist competing in the Madison, points race, and scratch race, he moved on to become a professional 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 quickly risen to prominence as a sprinter. Cavendish was introduced to the world of cycling about the age of 12, having previously been a keen BMXer. He now splits his time living and training between Manchester and Tuscany, Italy.

1 Career biography
2 Career highlights
- 2.1 Major track results
- 2.2 Major road results
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Career biography

Cavendish's cycling career started as a successful track cyclist. Among his best results were his gold medal in the 2006 Commonwealth Games scratch race, riding for the Isle of Man; and gold medals in the 2005 world championships madison and 2005 European championship point races. Also during 2005, he began road racing, riding the Tour of Berlin and the Tour of Britain.

"Cavendish is the fastest in the world in the last 50 metres of a sprint."
Daniele Bennati, May 2008^[1]

Cavendish began the 2006 road season riding for the Continental team Team Sparkasse. In June, he won two stages in the Tour of Berlin, as well as the points competition and the sprints competition.^[2] This led to his gaining a post as a stagiare with T-Mobile from August until the end of the season.^[3] His best result for T-Mobile in 2006 came during the Tour of Britain, where he took three second places and won the points classification. This helped secure a full-time professional contract with T-Mobile for 2007 and 2008.^[4]

Cavendish's 2007 season began with a win in the Belgian semi-classic, the Grote Scheldeprijs, followed by two in each of the Four Days of Dunkirk and the Volta a Catalunya. This led to his being selected for the 2007 Tour de France. However, his Tour was not successful. Crashes in stages 1 and 2 removed him from contention for two of the stages won by sprinters, and left him heavily bruised.^[5] He abandoned the Tour on stage 8, in a planned withdrawal as soon as the race reached the high Alps, having taken two top-ten placings but stating that he was unhappy not to have had at least one top-five placing.^[6] His debut season continued with ten stage wins by mid-September, ahead of Robbie McEwen's record of eight wins in his first season as a professional, and one behind Alessandro Petacchi.^[7] By early October, Cavendish had taken his 11th win, 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."^[8]

Cavendish and Francaise des Jeux rider Sandy Casar were the first riders to sign the UCI's anti-doping charter, introduced before the 2007 Tour de France.^[9]

In 2008 Cavendish returned to the track ahead of the Olympic Games in Beijing, which he stated was his priority for the season.^[10] On 29 March 2008 Cavendish and his partner Bradley Wiggins became world champions in the Madison winning a close race at the UCI World Championships in Manchester.^[11] ^[12] On the road, Cavendish continued to compete successfully, most notably winning his first stages in a Grand Tour at the 2008 Giro d'Italia.^[13]

[edit] Career highlights

[edit] Major track results

UCI Track World Championships: 2005 - Los Angeles, 1st, Madison (with Rob Hayles); Rob Hayles and Mark gave Britain their fourth gold at the UCI Track World Championships in Los Angeles, California in the men's Madison. The pair finished one lap ahead of the field to claim the 200-lap race, ahead of the Dutch and Belgian teams.; Mark was only taken to Los Angeles to get some senior experience and the two had not raced together before.^[14]; 2008 - Manchester, 1st, Madison (with Bradley Wiggins)
Commonwealth Games: 2006 - Melbourne, 1st Scratch Race; Over 80 laps of the Melbourne track in the Commonwealth Games 2006, Cavendish raced to get a lap up on the field, with four other cyclists. Only the five racers managed to get the one lap up and in the final sprint for the line to decide the medals, with a lead from Rob Hayles, Cavendish (racing for the Isle of Man), won the gold medal, beating Ashley Hutchinson (Australia) and James McCallum (Scotland). He finished with a time of 23 mins 05.540 secs and an average speed of 51.965 km/hour.

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 Championships: 2005 - 1st Points race; 2005 - 4th Scratch Race

British Championships: 2008 - 1st Madison, British Senior Track Championship (with Peter Kennaugh); 2005 - 1st Circuit Road Race Championship (Otley); 2005 - 3rd Scratch Race (Track); 2004 - 2nd, Madison, British Senior Track Championship (with Ed Clancy); 2003 - 2nd, Scratch Race, British Junior Championships; 2003 - 2nd, Sprint, British Junior Championships; 2003 - 2nd, Road Race, British Junior Championships

Others: 2007 - 1st, Revolution 16, 15km Scratch Race; 2004 - 1st, Bremen UIV Talent Cup Madison (with Geraint Thomas); 2004 - 1st, Munich UIV Talents Cup Madison (with Matt Brammeier); 2004 - 1st, Revolution 6 Madison Kilometre, (Current record Holder) 57.457s (with Ed Clancy)