Mark Cavendish has been awarded an MBE for services to cycling in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.
The Manx Missile has amassed 66 wins since turning professional in 2007, including 15 Tour de France stage victories.
Cavendish joins a growing list of British cyclists who have been honoured by the Queen, including Bradley Wiggins CBE, who currently leads the Critérium du Dauphiné.
Chris Hoy was knighted after winning three gold medals on the track at Beijing Olympics in 2008, before winning the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award, for which Cavendish was shortlisted in 2009 and 2010.
And the 26-year-old Cavendish believes his MBE shows how the profile of cycling is growing in the United Kingdom.
“It is a massive honour for me to be recognised like this – it is not often that a cyclist is honoured without winning an Olympic medal,” Cavendish told Sporting Life.
“It is a great list of names that have been honoured and for me to be alongside them is massive for me.
“Cycling is growing and I am more known now, but I don’t do this for any celebrity status, I do it for the love of the sport. To know that cycling is getting recognised makes me massively proud.”
Cavendish was the only member of the Great Britain track cycling team to return from the Beijing Games without a medal.
With a pan-flat finish to the London 2012 road race, albeit with nine laps of a Box Hill circuit to tackle first, Cavendish is being touted as Great Britain’s first gold medallist of next year’s Games, with the men’s event taking place less than 24 hours after the opening ceremony.
But the sprint sensation insists the Olympics are the last thing on his mind, with an assault on the Tour de France’s green jersey his number one priority.
“The Tour de France is in three weeks and I will be aiming for more stages in that and the green jersey, and the World Championships in Copenhagen are another big goal for me,” he added.
“I won’t be changing much in my professional season in the build-up to the Olympics because I’m a professional athlete and I have to do my job.
“Not changing my preparation will be the best thing for the Olympics – the road race falls one week after the Tour de France finishes, so I should be on really good form for that.
“At the Olympics there will be pressure to try to get Britain off to a good start. But we have a strong team and I am looking forward to it.”
