{"id":259253,"date":"2025-11-03T07:42:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T07:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/259253\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T07:42:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T07:42:11","slug":"cavendish-enjoys-chance-slow-down-and-reconnect-with-manx-roots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/259253\/","title":{"rendered":"Cavendish enjoys chance ‘slow down’ and reconnect with Manx roots"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"BBCBBC<\/p>\n

Cavendish said he has been able to enjoy the ‘slower pace’ on the island<\/p>\n

Cycling legend Sir Mark Cavendish has said he is enjoying his retirement from competitive racing with more visits to the Isle of Man, a place where he said “I feel most Mark”.<\/p>\n

The 40-year-old from Laxey on the Isle of Man ended his career on a high in 2024 with a record 35 stage wins<\/a> at the Tour de France.<\/p>\n

Adjusting to life on the other side, he told the BBC that he had been able to travel back to the island “loads” including at this year’s TT races.<\/p>\n

Being home, he said he had “the sense that everyone’s super proud of what I’ve done” and it was the place “where I feel most, just Mark”.<\/p>\n

Cavendish was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement award at BBC Sports Personality of the Year last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In an eventful year for the cyclist, he was also knighted<\/a> in the King’s Birthday Honours, which he said he felt very grateful for the “recognition”.<\/p>\n

‘Proud Manxman’<\/p>\n

Known as the ‘Manx Missile’, he said through retiring he was able to travel back to the island far more.<\/p>\n

“It’s been great to be back loads this year,” he said, adding: “My heart’s always there – to be able to spend time there again, I just love it.”<\/p>\n

Cavendish said nothing compared to the Manx landscape for cycling, as even in bad weather it “toughens you up”.<\/p>\n

“It’s my favourite place in the world to ride a bike and for me it’s the best place in the world to train,” he said. <\/p>\n

He also said he more generally enjoyed being on the island, where “life kind of slows down”.<\/p>\n

“It’s beautiful, waking up and seeing the sea on a morning is something that has always been with me from growing up there,” he said, adding: “I’m a proud Manxman”. <\/p>\n

The raceway at the island’s National Sport Centre, where Cavendish rode as a child and where he fell in love with cycling, was renamed<\/a> after him last year.<\/p>\n

\"IOMIOM Government<\/p>\n

A mural at the raceway is made up of the names of 1,000 school children<\/p>\n

He said: “As long as I can remember there were 200 kids down there on a Tuesday night, and there’s still 200 kids down there on a Tuesday night.”<\/p>\n

That enthusiasm was something he wanted to “continue seeing” to create more cyclists and see “the three legs represented in cycling across the world”. <\/p>\n

Moving forward Cavendish said he wanted to stay close to cycling and continue to “do good” for the sport. <\/p>\n

Cavendish has shared the highs and lows of the last four years in his latest book, Believe.<\/p>\n

He said: “I’m the biggest believer that if you put the hard work into anything you want to achieve and you believe enough – then you can do what you want to do.”<\/p>\n

“I was never physically best cyclist by any means. But I worked and I believed.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BBC Cavendish said he has been able to enjoy the ‘slower pace’ on the island Cycling legend Sir…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259254,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-259253","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}