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Mark Cavendish
Mark Cavendish MBE is one of the most famous and successful faces in cycling and is Team Sky’s star signing for the 2012 campaign.
The ‘Manx Missile’ brings with him a world-class pedigree having enjoyed the most prolific season of his career in 2011.
In September he became world champion after securing the World Road Race title and the coveted rainbow jersey in Copenhagen.
That followed July’s Tour de France, where Cavendish confirmed his position as the world’s leading sprinter by powering to five stage victories and securing the prestigious Maillot Vert, or Green Jersey, as the race’s overall leading points scorer.
In addition to 20 Tour de France stage wins, Cavendish has secured a further 10 Grand Tour stage victories in his glittering career, as well as the overall points title at the 2010 Vuelta a Espana.
In 2009 Cavendish also won the prestigious Milan-San Remo race, one of the sport’s recognised ‘Monuments’.
After seven prosperous seasons with Bob Stapleton’s HTC-Highroad team, Cavendish is certain he is in the right place to extend that remarkable tally as he enters the prime years of his career.
He says: “I had plenty of offers once it was announced that HTC-Highroad were finishing, but I wanted to go for the best team in cycling – somewhere where I could get results and be happy – and Team Sky fitted the bill with everything.
“I’ve grown up with most of the riders and management so I know it’s a great, great set-up and it’s the biggest team in cycling right now. I’m super excited.”
Many analysts are already pondering whether Cavendish will be able to balance his Tour de France ambitions with his quest to become Great Britain’s first gold medallist at the London Olympic Games, but the man himself is confident in his ability and knows he’ll be given every opportunity to prosper in both.
“They are equal priorities for me,” he reveals. “And I wouldn’t have set them out as targets if I didn’t think they were achievable. I’ve got great two great teams behind me at Team Sky and British Cycling, and hopefully we’ll be successful in both.
“There are six days between both races and it should help that this year’s Tour route isn’t as hard as it has been in the last two years. Most of the favourites for the Olympics are going to be riding the Tour as well, so we’ll all be in the same situation.”
Cavendish is also confident that Team Sky will be to cater for his sprint ambitions at the Tour while also managing Bradley Wiggins’s bid for the yellow jersey.
“That’s also definitely possible,” he explains. “Bradley wants to be part of my lead-out train in the flatter stages because it helps him with his positioning, and I’ll do everything I can for him in the mountain stages.
“If we pull together as a group of guys we can overcome anything and win yellow jerseys, green jerseys, whatever.”
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