Wins come early for Cavendish in 2013 including this one at the Tour of Qatar(Image credit: AFP)
On the podium at the 2012 Tour after a win at Brive-la-Gaillarde(Image credit: AFP)
Cavendish takes a stage in last year's Tour de France from Visé to Tournai (Image credit: AFP)
Toulouse and Cavendish wins his second stage of the 2008 Tour de France(Image credit: AFP)
Leaving Freire and McEwen behind at the 2008 Tour(Image credit: AFP)
Cavendish won four stages in his first Tour de France in 2008(Image credit: AFP)
Heinrich Haussler is beaten to the line by Cavendish at the 2009 Milan San Remo(Image credit: AFP)
Calling in antother win, this time at La Grande-Motte in the 2009 Tour de France(Image credit: AFP)
Mark Cavendish has always made a point of praising his teammates after wins(Image credit: AFP)
Mark Cavendish (Columbia-HTC) wins the final stage of the Tour de France(Image credit: AFP)
Another win on the Champs-Elysees, this time in 2010(Image credit: AFP)
Cavendish won three stages and points jersey at the Vuelta in 2010(Image credit: AFP)
One of Cavendish's most incredible wins: A Tour stage to Cap Fréhel in 2011(Image credit: AFP)
Cavendish wins in Montpellier in 2011(Image credit: AFP)
Taking the green jersey in Paris in 2011(Image credit: AFP)
Cavendish opens his sprint at the Worlds in 2011(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Mark Cavendish in the yellow jersey at the Tour de France in 2016(Image credit: Getty Images)
Mark Cavendish spent a day in the maillot jaune at the 2016 Tour de France(Image credit: Getty Images)
Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) was the best sprinter in the 2016 Tour de France(Image credit: Getty Images)
Mark Cavendish takes one of three stages at the Tour de France in 2016(Image credit: Getty Images)
Mark Cavendish (Etixx QuickStep) wins a stage in the 2015 Tour de France(Image credit: Getty Images)
Mark Cavendish enjoyed a hugely successful season in 2016 with Dimension Data(Image credit: Getty Images)
Mark Cavendish in the green jersey at the Tour de France alongside former teammate Geraint Thomas(Image credit: Getty Images)
Mark Cavendish wins the opening stage of the 2016 Tour de France(Image credit: Getty Images)
The Manx missile was the fastest sprinter in the 2016 Tour de France(Image credit: Getty Images)
Beating Peter Sagan to yet another Tour de France stage win(Image credit: Getty Images)
Winning one of two stages of the Abu Dhabi Tour in 2016(Image credit: Getty Images)
Winning a stage of the 2017 Abu Dhabi Tour(Image credit: Getty Images)
Mark Cavendish has enjoyed a number of wins in the middle east during his long career(Image credit: Getty Images)
Mark Cavendish shows off a trophy after taking a win at the Abu Dhabi Tour(Image credit: Getty Images)
Mark Cavendish in the leader's jersey, and winning, at the Tour of California(Image credit: Getty Images)
Signing on for stage 6 of the 2014 Tirreno Adriatico(Image credit: Getty Images)
Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish share a joke in Sacramento at the Tour of California in 2014(Image credit: Getty Images)
Wherever he goes, Mark Cavendish remains the centre of attention(Image credit: Getty Images)
Mark Cavendish has had tough times as well as good. In 2014 he crashed out of the Tour de France on stage 1(Image credit: Getty Images)
Winning a stage in the 2015 Tour de France against one of his greatest rivals, Andre Greipel(Image credit: Getty Images)
Mark Cavendish in the leader's jersey after his team won the opening TTT at Tirreno Adriatico in 2014(Image credit: Getty Images)
Mark Cavendish with ex-teammate Michal Kwiatkowski(Image credit: Getty Images)
Mark Cavendish with a young Fernando Gaviria in the Tour de San Luis(Image credit: Getty Images)
Mark Cavendish winning a stage in the 2015 Tour de San Luis(Image credit: Getty Images)
Mark Cavendish and his friend and former teammate Bernhard Eisel in 2015(Image credit: Getty Images)
Mark Cavendish taking stage 4 of the Tour de Suisse in 2014(Image credit: Getty Images)
Mark Cavendish has won 10 stages in the Tour of California during his career(Image credit: Getty Images)
Mark Cavendish(Image credit: Getty Images)
Bernhard Eisel, Mark Renshaw and Mark Cavendish were friends on and of the bike(Image credit: Getty Images)
In crossing the line first on the final stage of the Tour of Turkey on Sunday, Mark Cavendish made it four wins for the week and 150 for his career.
It’s a milestone that appeared out of reach when he reached the end of 2020 without a win in almost three years and without a team for the following season. However, the Manxman was handed a lifeline at his former squad, Deceuninck-QuickStep, and he has resurrected his career at 35 years of age.
It’s a career in which the kind of strike rate he produced in Turkey was standard procedure for so long, and we've captured the main moments in the gallery above.
In his first full season as a professional, with T-Mobile in 2007, Cavendish won 11 times, including Scheldeprijs, often dubbed the World Championships for sprinters.
He won 17 times the following year, winning Scheldeprijs again before taking the first of many Grand Tour stage wins – two at the Giro d’Italia and four at the Tour de France.
The win count continued to rise in 2009 as he reached a mammoth 23, six of which came during a completely dominant run at the Tour de France. He also won three more at the Giro and claimed a Monument title with a thrilling last-ditch sprint at Milan-San Remo.
The win rate then dropped a little from those early heights but no one can question the quality: Five stage wins apiece at the 2010 and 2011 Tours, three at the 2010 Vuelta, and two at the 2011 Giro. The crowning, glory, however, was the World Championships victory in Copenhagen in 2011.
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Cavendish would wear the rainbow jersey with Team Sky in 2012 after the T-Mobile/HighRoad team folded, and he won three stages apiece at the Giro and Tour. However, he didn’t appear to fit seamlessly into the GC-oriented squad and joined QuickStep in 2013.
He won 44 races in the space of three years with the Belgian squad, including five Giro wins and the British national title in his debut year. However, success at the Tour stopped flowing so freely, partly due to the emergence of Marcel Kittel, who made Cavendish no longer feel "unbeatable". Cavendish won two stages in 2013 and one in 2015, but crashed out on the opening day of the 2014 race on home soil in Yorkshire.
Cavendish then left QuickStep to join Dimension Data, previously a second-division outfit. Many questioned the transfer but 2016 turned out to be one of the best years of his career. He returned to Tour de France dominance, winning four stages, but combined it with the track, winning a Madison world title in the spring and then the placing runner-up in the Omnium in Rio – claiming that elusive Olympic medal.
However, that’s when Cavendish’s career started to stall. He contracted Epstein Barr Virus over the winter and spent the best part of three years struggling to train and race as the virus returned. He won a stage of the Abu Dhabi Tour in 2017 and the Dubai Tour in 2018, and then nothing until this past week in 2021.
After this resurgence and the milestone of 150 wins, the big question now is: how many more?
Patrick is a freelance sports writer and editor. He’s an NCTJ-accredited journalist with a bachelor’s degree in modern languages (French and Spanish). Patrick worked full-time at Cyclingnews for eight years between 2015 and 2023, latterly as Deputy Editor.
