Sir Mark Cavendish Raceway renamed in honour of Manx sprinter

The 35-time Tour de France stage winner returned to where he began racing competitively to unveil the new name

Cavendish returned to the raceway he grew up riding on to rename it in his honour (David Lovelady)

The raceway at the Isle of Man’s National Sports Centre has been officially renamed in honour of Sir Mark Cavendish.

The Manx sprinter was in Douglas to christen the new Sir Mark Cavendish Raceway, where he began cycling competitively as a child, and which helped kickstart his glittering career.

Cavendish, who retired at the end of the 2024 season after a 19-year professional career, completed a timed ‘hot lap’ of the 1km raceway before being joined by a number of local children to ride around the renamed facility.

Cavendish told The Independent, “It’s a big honour. It’s the place where I started and it had a profound impact on my career, so from a sentimental point of view, it’s very, very nice. I was about ten or eleven when I first started racing there, going down on a BMX and getting my head kicked in! Then getting a bike with gears, getting the thrill of it, I wanted to be first across the line every time.

“It’s exactly the same now [for these kids], they’ve just got faster bikes!”

The Manxman completed a timed lap of the 0.6 mile (1km) circuit (David Lovelady)

The 40-year-old raced his final Tour de France last year, retiring with a record 35 stage wins at cycling’s most prestigious race, along with 20 stage wins at the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a Espana, a world road race title, several major one-day wins including at Milan-San Remo, and three world championship victories on the track.

His children, including seven-year-old Casper, now follow in his footsteps by riding on the raceway, and Cavendish said the facility is hugely important for instilling a love of cycling and enjoyment of sport. Members of his former cycling club were also in attendance at Friday’s event, forming a guard of honour before his timed lap.

“I fell in love with cycling because of the community,” Cavendish added. Some of the volunteers who run events at the Raceway, including children’s racing nights, are still around from when he was coming through the ranks. “That’s the beauty of cycling, that everyone can do it, it’s got this club feel to it, and it’s so nice to see that hasn’t changed.

Roughly a thousand children's names feature in a mural of the Raceway's new name (David Lovelady)

“The facilities for sport are so good for such a small community, everyone embraces it here. It rains a lot and everyone is out, whether it’s playing footy, track and field, or cycling – it’s in everyone’s blood. Most people have a racing nature in them.”

The Raceway held a similar “parade lap” featuring local children alongside Cavendish last year to celebrate his Tour de France record, and he wanted to replicate that this year to get the community involved.

“I’m so honoured that it’s my name on there, but it’s a place for everyone,” he said. “The kids can dream there. To be able to push things further [as a professional cyclist] you have to travel the world, and knowing someone from your community can do it, having the inspiration to do what you want to achieve [is important].”