Mark Cavendish, Tour de France green jersey winner and World Road Race champion has been voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year, making him only the third cyclist to win with Tommy Simpson having taken the honour in 1965 and Sir Chris Hoy in 2008. A good year all round for Cav; even aside from the two-wheel success he was awarded an MBE in November (for services to cycling) and won the Sports Journalists’ Association sportsman of the year award in earlier this month.
Although Cevendish was considered one of the strongest contenders for the SPOTY ever since the nominations were announced, the utter landslide scale of his victory at last night’s ceremony (Thursday December 22) was almost embarrassing. He walked away with 49.47% of the vote, in contrast to second place Golfer Darren Clarke with just 12.34% and world 5000m champion athlete Mo Farah on 8.71%. All in a victory for cycling as well as for Cavendish.
