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Mark Cavendish awarded MBE in Queen's Birthday Honours

Manx Missile's achievements recognised with gong - but will TDF green jersey prove more elusive?...

Mark Cavendish has described being awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List as “A massive honour,” and says that the timing of next year’s Olympic road race means that he should be in perfect form to challenge for the gold medal at London 2012.

The HTC-Highroad sprinter, who in last month’s Giro d’Italia won his 25th Grand Tour individual stage, said: "It is a massive honour for me to be recognised like this - it is not often that a cyclist is honoured without winning an Olympic medal,” reports the website sportinglife.com.

"It is a great list of names that have been honoured and for me to be alongside them is massive for me,” he continued.

"Cycling is growing and I am more known now, but I don't do this for any celebrity status, I do it for the love of the sport.

"To know that cycling is getting recognised makes me massively proud."

The 26-year-old currently has 15 Tour de France stage wins to his name and has won the final stage on the Champs-Elysées – often dubbed ‘the sprinters’ world championship’ for the past two years, although he has not yet managed to win the points classification.

That’s something Cavendish intends to change, although changes to the way points are awarded – this year there will only be one intermediate sprint per stage, but it will be worth 20 points to the winner – may count against him, effectively creating a race-within-a-race, even on the mountain stages.

"The Tour de France is in three weeks and I will be aiming for more stages in that and the green jersey, and the World Championships in Copenhagen are another big goal for me,'' he explained.

"I won't be changing much in my professional season in the build-up to the Olympics because I'm a professional athlete and I have to do my job.

"Not changing my preparation will be the best thing for the Olympics - the road race falls one week after the Tour de France finishes, so I should be on really good form for that.

"At the Olympics there will be pressure to try to get Britain off to a good start. But we have a strong team and I am looking forward to it.''

Cavendish’s Tour de France preparations continue with his participation in the Tour de Suisse, which starts today with an individual time trial – at 7.3km, most it’s really a prologue – around Lake Lugano.

Last year, Cavendish was fined after he was ruled to be at fault for a high-speed crash that took out Heinrich Haussler as the pair vied for a sprint, the incident ending the Cervelo-TestTeam rider’s season.

However, the Manxman last night explained on Twitter that there was little prospect of a repeat of that type of incident this year, saying “Just saw race handbook for TourDeSuisse. No chance of another.. ahem.. mishap between Haussler & myself. BECAUSE THERE'S NO F*CKING SPRINTS.”

At some point of course Cavendish will have to take time out of his schedule to visit Buckingham Palace to receive his MBE. We’re guessing that appointment will prove easier to arrange compared to the two and a half years it took to schedule a date for him to receive the Freedom of the Borough of Douglas on his native Isle of Man, which he finally picked up earlier this year.
 

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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16 comments

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mrsminx411 | 13 years ago
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Simon - He's not on the overseas list either. I suspect someone's been making mischief.

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Simon_MacMichael replied to mrsminx411 | 13 years ago
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Confusingly, the Overseas list isn't actually where they list most of the people overseas who get honours. He's on the Commonwealth List.

Can't find a link to the original. but luckily the top Google hit takes you to the list as republished by that bastion of the monarchy, The Guardian.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jun/11/queens-birthday-honours-list-20...

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Michael5 | 13 years ago
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He's a sprinter... of course he's arrogant!

Undeniably the best road sprinter in the world at the moment and he knows it. Arrogance would apply if he thought he could just rock up and win. But as the documentary on telly the other day showed, Cav is a stickler for practice and doesn't leave anything to chance.

Great to see a Brit with his kind of self-belief for a change. Self-deprecation and modesty is all very well, but doesn't make for exciting viewing!

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wild man | 13 years ago
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Wonder if he can be bothered to turn up and collect it, or if the Queen will have to work round his busy schedule?

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Gkam84 replied to wild man | 13 years ago
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wild man wrote:

Wonder if he can be bothered to turn up and collect it, or if the Queen will have to work round his busy schedule?

She's going to get a place on HTC team for the TdF and has to lead him out with medal in hand  19

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KirinChris | 13 years ago
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Not just stage wins, 15 of them in the TDF - that's not only a hell of a lot more than any other Brit, it's more than 'legends' like Zabel, McEwen or Cippolini got in their entire careers.

As Dave said, you may not like him, but that shouldn't detract from admitting his achievements.

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mrsminx411 | 13 years ago
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No sign of him on the list on direct.gov (unless my eyes are decieving me).

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Simon_MacMichael replied to mrsminx411 | 13 years ago
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mrsminx411 wrote:

No sign of him on the list on direct.gov (unless my eyes are decieving me).

I noticed that too. I'm assuming it's because the Isle of Man isn't part of the UK, and only UK recipients are listed on direct.gov. For example, there's no mention of Australians named in the Birthday Honours either.

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Karbon Kev | 13 years ago
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Dear oh dear, this arrogant idiot hasn't done anything yet, really ffs?

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antonio replied to Karbon Kev | 13 years ago
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Karbon Kev wrote:

Dear oh dear, this arrogant idiot hasn't done anything yet, really ffs?

No? could have fooled me.

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dave atkinson replied to Karbon Kev | 13 years ago
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Karbon Kev wrote:

Dear oh dear, this arrogant idiot hasn't done anything yet, really ffs?

Really? double world champion? stage wins in all three grand tours, and six in one year at the TdF? Commonwealth gold medallist? MSR winner?

Whether you like Cav or not, which you clearly don't, saying he hasn't done anything is absurd.

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Cooks | 13 years ago
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So who reckons he'll have his bike decals changed to show Mark Cavendish MBE?

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jova54 | 13 years ago
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Today and MBE; next year, after the Olympics, a K??  4

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londonplayer | 13 years ago
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Does MBE stand for "Motor-assisted Bike up mt Etna"?

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Simon_MacMichael replied to londonplayer | 13 years ago
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londonplayer wrote:

Does MBE stand for "Motor-assisted Bike up mt Etna"?

 41

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WolfieSmith | 13 years ago
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Sir Philip Liggert has a nice ring to it..

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