page_title: Mark Cavendish
section_title: 2011
hierarchical_section_title: Mark Cavendish / Professional career / 2011
caption_attribution_description: English: 2011 UCI Road World Championships – Men's road race - The podium with runner-up Matthew Goss, Australia (left) the winner and world champion Mark Cavendish, Great Britain (center) and no. 3 André Greipel, Germany (right) Dansk: VM i landevejscykling 2011, herre-elitens linjeløb - Podiet med nr 2 Matthew Goss, Australia (tv.) vinder og ny verdensmester Mark Cavendish, Great Britain (i midten) og nr. 3 André Greipel, Tyskland (th.)
context_page_description: Mark Simon Cavendish MBE is a Manx professional road racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam Bahrain–McLaren. As a track cyclist he specialises in the madison, points race, and scratch race disciplines; as a road racer he is a sprinter. He is considered one of the greatest road sprinters of all time, but he is also known for his aggressive riding style that led to various incidents.
  In his first years as an elite track rider, Cavendish won gold in the madison at the 2005 and 2008 UCI Track Cycling World Championships riding for Great Britain, with Rob Hayles and Bradley Wiggins respectively, and in the scratch race at the 2006 Commonwealth Games riding for Isle of Man. After failing to win a medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics he did not compete on track until 2015, subsequently winning his third UCI Track Cycling World Championships title with Wiggins in the madison in 2016, and an individual silver medal in the Omnium at the 2016 Summer Olympics.
  As a road cyclist, Cavendish turned professional in 2005, and achieved eleven wins in his first professional season.
context_section_description: Cavendish had a slow start to 2011 failing to win a race until late February when he won stage six of the Tour of Oman. His second victory of the season came in the Scheldeprijs—his third in this event following his wins in 2007 and 2008—bringing him to the record tied with Piet Oellibrandt. He failed to finish at the Paris–Roubaix. He came second in the second stage of the Giro d'Italia in contentious circumstances (Cavendish gestured at winner Petacchi for appearing to move across his path in the final sprint) to take the pink jersey into stage three. Cavendish got his first grand tour victory of the year by winning stage ten of the Giro, denying claims that he had illegally held on to his team car when climbing Mount Etna on stage nine. He won his second Giro victory of 2011 on stage twelve before leaving the race. On 11 June, it was announced that Cavendish was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the Queen's Birthday Honours.
  He won stage five, seven, eleven, fifteen and twenty-one of the Tour de France — bringing his total to twenty career Tour de France stage wins. He also became the first person to win the final stage three years in succession. Cavendish was docked twenty points for finishing outside the time limit after stage nine and again after eighteen. He went on to win the points classification—the first British cyclist to do so.
  Over the following weeks, Cavendish took part in the post-Tour criteriums. He won the Stiphout Criterium in The Netherlands, beating brothers Andy and Fränk Schleck of Leopard Trek to the line. He then won the Profcriterium Wolvertem-Meise, followed by the Wateringse Wielerdag. In August, Cavendish's team HTC-Highroad announced they would fold at the end of the season, fuelling speculation that Cavendish would move to Team Sky. The following week, racing for team Great Britain, he won the London–Surrey Cycle Classic, the official test event for the road race at the 2012 Summer Olympics and part of the London Prepares series. Less than a week later, Cavendish started the Vuelta a España, but abandoned it during stage four due to the searing heat. After withdrawing from the Vuelta Cavendish was allowed to be a late addition to the line up of the Tour of Britain. Cavendish won stage one in Dumfries to take the leader's jersey, and the final stage in London.
  At the end of September, Cavendish went to the UCI Road World Championships in Copenhagen taking part in the road race with an eight-strong British team. After the team controlled the whole race it came down to a sprint finish with Cavendish crossing the line in first place taking the rainbow jersey. He became the second British male UCI world champion after Tom Simpson in 1965. Amid much speculation, it was announced Cavendish would join Team Sky for the 2012 season. His HTC-Highroad team-mate Bernhard Eisel joined him.
  In November, Cavendish made a cameo return to the track, competing in the Revolution event at Manchester Velodrome. He won the scratch race, his first win on the track of any kind since 2008. He announced he was starting his training for the 2012 season earlier than in previous years, with the aim of being more competitive in the Classics. In November, he won the 2011 Most Inspirational Sportsman of the Year Award at the Jaguar Academy of Sport Annual Awards at The Savoy Hotel in London. In December, Cavendish won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award with 169,152 (49.47%) of the votes cast, ahead of Mo Farah and Darren Clarke.
caption: Matthew Goss of Australia, Cavendish and Germany's André Greipel on the podium after the road race at the 2011 road world championships.
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