"Fastest man on two wheels" just got faster as Mark Cavendish swaps Lycra for leathers (+ video)

Mark Cavendish hasn't had the best of years – his solitary stage win in July's Tour de France was his lowest return since his debut in the race in 2007 – but a couple of pictures posted to Facebook this week show that the self-styled "fastest man on two wheels" has just got faster.

The bike he's riding has an engine, but this isn't anything to do with so-called mechanical doping – Cavendish, known to be a fan of fast cars, is on a motorbike as befits a native of the island in the Irish Sea that is home to the Isle of Man TT.

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The blue skies – not to mention Table Mountain in the background – are a bit of a giveaway that Cavendish was in rather sunnier climes at the Killarney Circuit in Cape Town, South Africa, where he has been on a training camp with his new team.

The ride was arranged by former elite cyclist Jonny Towers, now managing director of trade distributor Moto Direct's Cycling Division; the company is official clothing partner to the Isle of Man CycleFest, which will coincide next year with the island hosting a round of the Tour Series.

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Afterwards, Towers tweeted: "Turns out the @MarkCavendish can ride a Moto pretty fast too ... First time on a track and only 3 secs off lap record."

Cavendish has ridden part of the TT course before, on a road bike for a downhill challenge in this video produced for Jaguar in 2013.

In September fellow Manxman and former Team Sky colleague Peter Kennaugh set a new course record for cycling the full TT course, breaking the one set 22 years earlier by Chris Boardman.