Video: Can Mark Cavendish complete a Rubik’s Cube in less than 2 minutes?

Former world champion Mark Cavendish has one way of keeping his brain sharp and while away the time – he’s a self-confessed puzzle addict, regularly tackling crosswords, Sudoku and the Rubik’s Cube, the latter shown in this video from The Peloton Brief.

The Dimension Data rider, who will ride the Madison and the Omnium at the forthcoming UCI Track World Championships in London, says the three-dimensional puzzle is the perfect thing to keep his hands busy when waiting for a flight to take off.

He adds that he “gets upset” if he can’t complete it in under two minutes. Watch the video to find out how he gets on this time.

He was introduced to cubing by former sprint rival Alessandro Petacchi, who also rode alongside him for two seasons at Omega Pharma-Quick Step – here’s a video of the pair going head to head to solve the puzzle on the team bus before the 2014 edition of Milan-San Remo.

The Manx sprinter confines his attempts to complete the Rubik’s Cube to when he is off the bike – unlike the Italian tourist who last October filmed himself solving one in just 40 seconds while riding a Boris Bike through London’s Hyde Park and was subsequently investigated by police.

> Police investigating Rubik Cube-solving Boris Biker

Just last month, a physics student in India set a new Guinness World Record by solving no fewer than 111 Rubik’s Cubes in just two hours – a rate of around 1 a minute – while cycling all the time.

> Boffin sets record by solving 111 Rubik’s Cubes in 2 hours while cycling