T-Mobile Team (2006–2011)
His success at the 2006 Tour de Berlin led to him being a stagiaire with the T-Mobile Team from August until the end of the season. His best result on the road was in the Tour of Britain where he came second twice and third once, and won the points classification. He signed an initial two-year contract to join the team full-time from the 2007 season.
His breakthrough came at the 2007 Scheldeprijs race in Belgium, which he won. He went on to win stages at the Four Days of Dunkirk and the Volta a Catalunya leading to his selection for the Tour de France. He crashed on stages one and two and abandoned the race on stage eight as it reached the Alps. Although he had taken two top-ten placings he was unhappy not to have had a top-five placing. Cavendish took his eleventh win in early October at the Circuit Franco-Belge. Among the wins were three in UCI ProTour events—two in the Volta a Catalunya and one in the Eneco Tour.
In 2008, Cavendish returned to the track for the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Manchester. Cavendish was brought in to partner Bradley Wiggins in the madison, as Hayles failed a routine blood test, and was subsequently banned. At around halfway through the race they appeared to be out of contention, with their closest rivals all gaining a lap. With thirty-five laps left to race, Wiggins launched an attack which helped them reach the field ten laps later. They took the lead due to the superior points they had collected in the sprints. They held on to win the gold medal, finishing with nineteen points, ahead of Germany on thirteen.
On the road, Cavendish won his first stages of a Grand Tour with two victories in the Giro d'Italia and four stages in the Tour de France, the first of which was on stage five. He won also stages eight, twelve and thirteen. After stage fourteen, Cavendish abandoned the Tour to concentrate on the Olympics in Beijing. He paired with Wiggins in the madison, and as the reigning world champions, they were favourites for the gold medal but finished ninth. Cavendish felt Wiggins had not performed to the best of his ability in the madison. The rest of his season was successful, with a total of eleven further race wins, including three each at the Tour of Ireland and the Tour of Missouri where he won his only points classification of the season. At the Tour de Romandie, he won the opening time trial, beating compatriot Wiggins and emphasising his short-distance time-trial abilities.
Cavendish's 2009 season began at the Tour of Qatar, where he renewed his rivalry with Quick-Step's Tom Boonen. Boonen won the race and one stage, though Cavendish took two stages. He also won two stages at the Tour of California, again beating Boonen in the sprint finishes. The Tour of California also saw him win his first points of classification of the 2009 season. He was a surprise inclusion on the British squad for the 2009 UCI Track Cycling World Championships, where he competed in the scratch race and the madison, failing to pick up medals in either. He took up the European season at Tirreno–Adriatico, the Italian one-week stage race, winning one stage. He then entered his first classic race, Milan–San Remo, where he tracked down Cervélo TestTeam rider Heinrich Haussler in the last 200 metres (220 yd) narrowly winning the sprint and the race—Cavendish's first victory in a race known as one of the five cycling monuments.
Cavendish repeated his 2008 two-stage victory at the Three Days of De Panne, also winning the points classification. At the start of the Giro d'Italia Team Columbia–High Road won the team time trial and Cavendish was given the pink leader's jersey, becoming the first Manx rider to wear it. The first two road stages were fruitless for Cavendish, as he was beaten to the line by Alessandro Petacchi in the first stage, before he was caught behind a crash and failed to make it back for the sprint the next day. After this, Cavendish took three stage wins before abandoning it after stage thirteen, citing a need to rest in preparation for the Tour de France. He continued his preparation by racing the Tour de Suisse where he won stages three and six.
During the season, Cavendish developed a partnership with his lead out man, Mark Renshaw. Continuing his run of success, he won stages two, three, ten, eleven, nineteen and twenty-one of the Tour de France. In winning the third stage, he became the first Briton to hold the green jersey two days in a row. Cavendish's stage eleven win enabled him to reclaim the green jersey from rival Thor Hushovd of Cervélo TestTeam. It also equalled Barry Hoban's British record of eight stage wins. Winning stage nineteen, Cavendish set a new record for Tour de France stage wins by a British rider. In winning the last stage, he led home a one–two for his team, as his teammate and lead out man, Renshaw, finished second on the Champs-Élysées.
Following on from the Tour de France, Cavendish won the Sparkassen Giro Bochum and took part in the Tour of Ireland, winning stage two. In September he recorded the fiftieth win of his road racing career in a sprint finish in the opening stage of the Tour of Missouri. Before the race he confirmed he would remain with Team Columbia–HTC in 2010, ending speculation that he was moving to the newly created British team, Team Sky. Cavendish retained the leader's jersey by sprinting to victory in stage two but finished fifth in stage three, losing the overall lead to Hushovd. A lung infection forced him to withdraw from the race before stage four. Although selected for the British team for the road race at the UCI Road World Championships, his illness prevented him from taking part.
After a dental problem, Cavendish delayed the start of his 2010 season until the Vuelta a Andalucía in mid-February. Following the lay off, he failed to defend his victory at Milan–San Remo, coming in six minutes behind the winner in eighty-ninth place. His pre-season goals were to win the green jersey in the Tour de France and win the road race at the UCI Road World Championships. Cavendish raced in the Tour of Flanders for the first time but only to work for a teammate and gain experience. He was involved in a crash and did not finish. He found form at the Volta a Catalunya, finishing seventh in the time-trial and winning stage two. His team withdrew Cavendish from the Tour de Romandie for making an offensive gesture after winning the second stage. Missing the Giro d'Italia, he chose instead to compete at the Tour of California starting in May, where he won stage one for his third victory of the season. In June, Cavendish crashed heavily whilst sprinting in the closing metres of stage four of the Tour de Suisse. He appeared to veer off line and brought down Haussler and several other riders, raising criticism from other teams regarding his riding style.
Cavendish entered the Tour de France. During stage one, he crashed out of the final sprint, with just under 3 kilometres (1.9 miles) remaining in the stage. Overhead camera footage showed him failing to negotiate a corner after entering too fast and turning too late. He then leaned his shoulder into a fellow rider as he travelled away from the racing line. Cavendish returned to form by winning stages five, six, eleven, eighteen and twenty, bringing his career total to fifteen Tour de France stage wins. He ended up second in the points classification, eleven points behind Petacchi. Cavendish's next race was the Vuelta a España. His team won the team time trial with Cavendish finishing first, taking the leader's jersey. He could place only second or third in the subsequent sprint stages but in the second half of the race, he won stages twelve, thirteen, eighteen and ultimately won the points classification.
Cavendish had a slow start to 2011 failing to win a race until late February when he won stage six of the Tour of Oman. His second victory of the season came in the Scheldeprijs, with his third win in the race matching the record of Petrus Oellibrandt, following his wins in 2007 and 2008. Having failed to finish at Paris–Roubaix, Cavendish came second in the second stage of the Giro d'Italia to take the pink jersey in contentious circumstances, gesturing at stage winner Petacchi for appearing to move across his path in the final sprint. Cavendish got his first Grand Tour stage victory of the year by winning stage ten of the Giro d'Italia, denying claims that he had illegally held on to his team car when climbing Mount Etna on stage nine. He also won stage twelve prior to leaving the race. In June, it was announced that Cavendish was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2011 Birthday Honours. He won stages five, seven, eleven, fifteen and twenty-one of the Tour de France—bringing his total to twenty career Tour de France stage wins. He also became the first person to win the final stage three years in succession. Despite being docked twenty points each time for finishing outside the time limit after stages nine and eighteen, Cavendish ultimately became the first British rider to win the points classification.
Over the following weeks, Cavendish took part in the post-Tour criteriums. He won the Stiphout Criterium in The Netherlands, beating brothers Andy and Fränk Schleck of Leopard Trek to the line. He then won the Profcriterium Wolvertem-Meise, followed by the Wateringse Wielerdag. In August, Cavendish's team HTC–Highroad announced they would fold at the end of the season, fuelling speculation that Cavendish would move to Team Sky. The following week, racing for team Great Britain, he won the London–Surrey Cycle Classic, the official test event for the road race at the 2012 Summer Olympics and part of the London Prepares series. Less than a week later, Cavendish started the Vuelta a España, but abandoned it during stage four due to the searing heat. After withdrawing from the Vuelta a España, Cavendish was allowed to be a late addition to the line up of the Tour of Britain. Cavendish won stage one in Dumfries to take the leader's jersey, and the final stage in London.
At the end of September, Cavendish went to the UCI Road World Championships in Copenhagen as part of an eight-rider British team for the road race. After the team controlled the whole race it came down to a sprint finish with Cavendish crossing the line in first place taking the rainbow jersey, to become the second British male UCI world champion after Tom Simpson in 1965. In November, Cavendish returned to the track, competing in the Revolution event at Manchester Velodrome. He won the scratch race, his first track win since 2008. He announced he was starting his training for the 2012 season earlier than in previous years, with the aim of being more competitive in the Classics. In November, he won the 2011 Most Inspirational Sportsman of the Year Award at the Jaguar Academy of Sport Annual Awards. In December, Cavendish won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award with approximately half of the votes cast, ahead of Mo Farah and Darren Clarke.
