Mark Cavendish heads to the Tour de France later this month looking to not only become the first rider to win 35 stages of cycling’s most famous race, but also the first to win one as a Knight Bachelor. The Manxman said he was “truly humbled and grateful” after being knighted in the King’s Birthday Honors on Friday evening.
Cavendish, 39, is widely regarded as the greatest sprinter in cycling history. He has won 164 races and continues to have an extraordinary career on track and road in what has been a golden era for the sport in Britain. Cavendish joins fellow cyclists Chris Hoy, Bradley Wiggins, Jason and Laura Kenny and Sarah Storey to receive the honour.
Of that group, only Cavendish and Storey are still active, and Cavendish is looking forward to what would be a record-breaking 35th stage win at this summer’s Tour, which starts in Florence in a few weeks. Cavendish is tied with Belgian great Eddy Merckx for 34 Tour stage wins, having achieved his first in 2008 as a 23-year-old.
The 2011 BBC Sports Personality of the Year winner, who now races for Team Astana Kazakhstan, announced his decision to retire in May last year but subsequently reversed it after crashing out on a bike during last year’s Tour day after his chain skipped as he looked set to win his record-breaking Tour stage to Bordeaux.
Cavendish is taking part in the Tour of Switzerland this week, from where he responded to the news of his knighthood. “I can only say that I am truly humbled to be honored by His Majesty the King,” he said. “It has always been the greatest privilege to represent my country, and seeing cycling as the sport, the pastime and the means of transport I have given my life to grow in Britain over the duration of my career has given me joy and pride that cannot be described. I am truly grateful to everyone who has been on this journey with me.”
Cavendish’s knighthood will be seen as a deserved recognition by the vast majority of those who fought with or against him. Cavendish is a notoriously prickly character who wears his heart on his sleeve. But he is also loved for his passion, his generosity to teammates, his loyalty and his fighting spirit, especially the way he bounced back from years of debilitating injuries and illness to win four stages of the Tour in 2021.
That extraordinary comeback was the subject of a Netflix documentary released last summer that chronicled Cavendish’s life growing up on the Isle of Man, his parents’ divorce, his move to Manchester as a young cyclist to join the young British Cycling Academy, his golden period between 2007 and 2015, when he achieved 133 victories, including the 2011 world title in Copenhagen, stages of all three Grand Tours and the Milan-San Remo victory in 2009, before falling into clinical depression after crashes and illness derailed his career.
The only notable absence from Cavendish’s glittering CV is an Olympic gold medal. He missed the track in 2008, when he and Wiggins were reigning world champions in Madison, and on the road in 2012, when his teammates failed to get him to the Mall for a sprint he was widely expected to win. In 2016, Cavendish won silver at the omnium.
But the Tour remains the pinnacle of cycling, and Cavendish – married with four children – has already sealed his legend there, whatever happens this summer. Tour race director Christian Prudhomme described the Manxman as the “greatest sprinter in the history of the Tour and cycling” in 2021.
This year’s race, which starts in Florence on June 29, consists of eight flat stages, the first of which takes place on July 1 with a sprint to Turin.
Dot Tilbury, 74, Cavendish’s first coach when he ran children’s cycling races at the Isle of Man National Sports Centre, said everyone on the island would support him.
“When I coached Mark as a boy, I had no doubt that he would achieve great things,” she said. “He was very passionate and driven – he took courses to find the best way and researched the latest gadgets to help him succeed.
She added: “Everyone in the Isle of Man, from young children to grandmothers, is so proud of what he has achieved. He inspired a lot of kids to think that you don’t have to be from a big city to do what you want in life.”
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