Well we couldn’t leave this one out, could we?

Some 46 years after Britain’s only male world champion, Tom Simpson, rode to victory in San Sebastian, Mark Cavendish capped a superb year by winning the rainbow bands in Copenhagen in 2011.

As had been the case during Simpson’s nearly half a decade before, the British team put in a huge effort to control the race, knowing they had the fastest man in world cycling ready to launch if they teed up a bunch sprint.

Having won the green jersey at the Tour de France earlier in the year, Cavendish executed his sprint to perfection despite being a marked man in the bunch gallop and nearly getting boxed in.

Having lost leadout man Geraint Thomas in the melee leading up to the final sprint, Cavendish shot through on the outside to outsprint HTC team-mate Matt Goss and claim the rainbow jersey.