Sir Mark Cavendish has now been officially knighted in a ceremony at Windsor Castle, receiving his knighthood from none other than the future King of England, Prince William.
“I’m a proud Brit," the legendary sprinter said afterwards in quotes collected by ITV. "I’ve represented the country many, many times in my career, and with all the proud of the flag and to know you’ve been recognised by your country and his Highness is something very, very special."
The most successful sprinter of all time, Cavendish has a record 35 Tour de France stage wins to his name, plus 17 Giro d'Italia victories, three Vuelta a Espana stages, a World Championship victory from 2011, a monument win at Milano-Sanremo, plus a number of successes on the track and many other victories on the road, in a glistening career of success. Notably, the 'Manx Missile' was awarded his knighthood not only for services to cycling, but also his charity work,
"To have an award, to have it bestowed upon you, a honour is not something generally you’re used to as a sports person. As a sports person you have a goal and you put the work in to achieve that goal," says the 39-year-old. "As a cyclist it’s a race, it’s a win and you are generally in control of how you get there and it’s a process that comes. But to have something that is bestowed upon you and it feels different because its super humbling."
"I never thought growing up that anybody in cycling would be knighted and to just see that in my career, that cycling was important enough, with Sir Brad [Wiggins], Sir Dave [Brailsford], Sir Chris [Hoy], Dame Laura [Kenny], Dame Sarah [Storey], it’s pretty special," he concludes. "Cycling as quite small and niche when I started, to know it’s big enough and successful enough in this country, it gets recognition, it gets rewarded, that’s special enough for me."
Place comments
0 Comments
You are currently seeing only the comments you are notified about, if you want to see all comments from this post, click the button below.
Show all comments