Cavendish’s journey was not an easy one.
He showed promise early in his career as a BMX and mountain bike rider before becoming part of the British Cycling team that dominated track competition at the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games.
His professional tour career began in 2005 with the T-Mobile feeder team, and he won his first Tour stage in 2008 for Team Columbia.
However, since 2017 he had been struggling with injuries, illnesses and depression, and the Briton feared that his career could end if he failed to win the race in 2019 and 2020.
The remarkable turnaround brought four more Tour stage wins – and the green jersey overall – in 2021, during his second stint with Belgian team Quick Step.
It has been a tumultuous year yet again, with Cavendish and his family falling victim to a brutal home invasion in 2021.
He failed to secure a place for the 2022 Tour and his cycling future was once again in doubt before Astana-Qazaqstan made a last-minute push for the 2023 season.
They took Cavendish on his 14th – and what should have been his last – tour, but a terrible accident in which he suffered a broken collarbone brought his race to an abrupt end and left him determined not to let this be his final farewell.
And so it was that earlier this year in Saint Vulbas he crossed the finish line in his characteristic fashion to break the long-standing record set by the great Belgian champion Eddy Merckx.
The Manx Missile rightly ended its career with a victory in Singapore in November – a month later he was knighted.
Cavendish was BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2011.
The 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to the Liverpool, Celtic and Scotland football legend Sir Kenny Dalglish.
