Mark Cavendish · Biography

Mark Cavendish was born on 21 May 1985 in Douglas, on the Isle of Man. He came up through track racing before moving to the road and joined British Cycling’s Olympic Academy in 2003. He raced as a professional sprinter from 2005 to November 2024 and retired with 35 Tour de France stage wins, more than any other rider.

Track beginnings

Cavendish’s first major results came in the velodrome. In 2005 he won the Madison world title with Rob Hayles, and in 2006 he took gold in the scratch race at the Commonwealth Games, riding for the Isle of Man. He was Madison world champion again in 2008, this time with Bradley Wiggins, and that summer the pair finished ninth in the Madison at the Beijing Olympics. The track never left his calendar entirely: in 2016 he won a third world Madison title, again alongside Wiggins.

Early years on the road

He turned professional with Team Sparkasse in 2005 and joined T-Mobile in 2006. That team later became HTC, and he stayed with it until 2011. It was there that he made his name in bunch finishes. He won his first Tour de France stage, stage five, in 2008. In 2009 he won Milan–San Remo, the only Monument of his career, and by September of that year he had 50 road victories. In 2010 he won the points classification at the Vuelta a España.

Rainbow jersey and green jersey

In 2011 Cavendish won the green jersey at the Tour de France and, that September, the road race world title in Copenhagen. He was appointed MBE in the same year for services to British cycling. He raced for Team Sky in 2012 and finished 29th in the road race at the London Olympics. From 2013 to 2015 he rode for Omega Pharma–Quick-Step. In 2013 he won the points classification at the Giro d’Italia, and his win on stage twelve of that race was the 100th of his professional career. Also in 2013 he became British road race champion, a title he won again in 2022.

Dimension Data and Rio 2016

He joined Dimension Data in 2016 and stayed until 2019. That first season was among his most complete. He won stages at the Tour, regained the world Madison title and took silver in the omnium at the Rio Olympics. In October he finished second in the world road race in Doha. The seasons that followed were harder, with few victories. In 2020 he rode for Bahrain–McLaren.

Back at Quick-Step and Merckx’s record

In 2021 he returned to the Belgian team, then called Deceuninck–Quick-Step, and won four stages at that year’s Tour. On 9 July 2021 he won stage 13 in Carcassonne to equal Eddy Merckx’s record of 34 stage wins, a mark that had stood since 1975. Ten years after his first green jersey, he finished that Tour wearing his second. He was appointed OBE in 2022.

Astana and stage 35

He signed with Astana Qazaqstan for 2023 and 2024. On 3 July 2024 he won the sprint on stage five of the Tour, which finished in Saint-Vulbas. It was his 35th Tour de France stage win and gave him the record outright. He won 55 stages across the three Grand Tours: 35 at the Tour, 17 at the Giro and 3 at the Vuelta, plus two team time trials in Italy and one in Spain. On 14 June 2024 he was made a Knight Commander (KBE) in the King’s Birthday Honours for services to cycling and charity work.

Retirement

Cavendish announced that the Tour de France Prudential Singapore Criterium would be his last race. He rode it on 10 November 2024 and won the sprint ahead of Jasper Philipsen. Several outlets counted it as his 166th career victory; road.cc put his professional total at 165 because the Singapore race is not on the UCI calendar.