British cycling great Sir Mark Cavendish will be honoured with the Lifetime Achievement award at BBC Sports Personality of the Year. The 39-year-old retired earlier this year having - the last coming in Saint Vulbas in July. Cavendish, who is from the Isle of Man, won 165 professional races and rounded off a stellar career with victory at the He will be presented with his award during the on Tuesday.
"It's such an amazing feeling - what an honour," said Cavendish. "I've been riding for 20 years and I've done everything I can so to be awarded this is something very, very special. "I'm very fortunate I've done everything I wanted to do, and proud that's more than many other people have done as well.
I always dreamed of having my name alongside those greats I grew up watching." Cavendish's roll of honour includes the road world title in 2011, 17 stages of the Giro d'Italia and three of the Vuelta a Espana. On the track, he won omnium silver at the 2016 Olympics and was a three-time madison world champion.
Cavendish's journey has not been straightforward. Early in his career, he showed promise as a BMX and mountain bike rider before becoming part of a British Cycling set-up that went on to dominate the track events at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics. His pro career on the road began in 2005 in a feeder team for T-Mobile, and he won his first Tour stage in 2008 for Team Columbia.
But from 2017 he was struck by injury, illness and depression - and the Briton feared his career could be o.
