Sir Mark Cavendish wrapped up his record-breaking career in fitting style by winning Sunday’s Singapore Criterium.
Here, the PA news agency looks at the Manx Missile’s achievements.
Tour de France
Cavendish’s cycling legacy was forged chiefly at the Tour de France, where he won a record 35 stages.
– Cavendish matched Eddy Merckx’s previous record of 34 wins, which had stood since 1975, on stage 13 of the 2021 Tour and then moved out on his own by winning stage five this year.
– His best year came in 2009 with six stage wins – two short of the record of eight shared by Merckx, in both 1970 and 1974, Charles Pelissier (1930) and Freddy Maertens (1976).
– Cavendish won five stages in both 2010 and 2011, four in 2008, 2016 and 2021, three in 2012, two in 2013 and one in 2015. He finished as the green jersey winner in both 2011 and 2021.
– Cavendish rode in 15 Tours and 231 stages, a strike rate of one win every 6.6 stages.
– Only four further riders have 20 or more stage wins – Bernard Hinault (28), Andre Leducq (25), Andre Darrigade (22) and Nicolas Frantz (20).
Other achievements
– Cavendish has won stages at all three grand tours, with 17 at the Giro d’Italia and three at the Vuelta a Espana. He won the green jersey for topping the points classification in Spain in 2010 and the mauve equivalent – the maglia ciclamino – in Italy in 2013.
– He won the 2011 World Road Race Championship and took silver in 2016.
– Milan-San Remo in 2009, one of cycling’s five “Monument” races, figures among Cavendish’s 12 wins in one-day races and classics.
– On the track, Cavendish won Olympic silver in the omnium at Rio 2016 and Commonwealth gold for the Isle of Man in the 2006 scratch race in Melbourne.
– He is a three-time world Madison champion, in 2005, 2008 and 2016.
