Following a superb season where he picked up the world road race championship plus five Tour de France stage wins and the Maillot Vert, Mark Cavendish has been nominated for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.
Known by the acronym SPOTY, the award is one of the most prestigious in British sport. This is the third year in success that Cavendish has been nominated and he will be up against nine other sportsmen in the public vote. The others in contention are the golfers Rory McIlroy, Darren Clarke and Luke Donald, athletes Dai Greene and Mo Farah, cricket players Alastair Cook and Andrew Strausse, the boxer Amir Khan and the tennis player Andy Murray.
The shortlist is selected by a panel of 27 sports editors, then the final winner is decided the evening of the ceremony. Controversially, no women have been nominated. Acknowledging this, SPOTY editor Carl Doran said that three were in the running. “It's a shame not to see Keri-Anne Payne, Chrissie Wellington or Rebecca Adlington get in the top 10, as they've all had great years and are wonderful role models - and all three came close to being in the 10. However, the vote is carried out independently of the BBC and by very knowledgeable individuals.”
However Britain’s junior world road race champion Lucy Garner was last week named as one of the ten contenders for the Young Sports Personality award. As is the case with the main SPOTY prize, the winner will be determined by public vote during the broadcast of the ceremony on Thursday December 22 from MediaCity UK in Salford.
Apart from his Tour and worlds successes, Cavendish also triumphed in several other races. His wins began with a stage in the Tour of Oman, then he picked up the Scheldeprijs and two stages in the Giro d’Italia. After the Tour, he clocked up victory in the London Surrey Cycle Classics in August, the race acting as an Olympic test event, then picked up the first and last stages of the Tour of Britain. That set him up for the worlds in Denmark, where he beat Matt Goss (Australia) and Andre Greipel (Germany) to the line.
The 26 year old’s chances of taking the BBC award are boosted by the fact that he is the sole cyclist in the running, while many of the other contenders share nominations with others in the sport. This is likely to split the vote between them.
The other British rider to win the world championship, Tom Simpson, picked up the SPOTY award in 1965, the year he donned the rainbow jersey. Chris Hoy was the last cyclist to win, receiving the award in 2008 after taking three gold medals in the Beijing Olympics. He is hoping to clock up more track medals next year in the London Olympics, while Cavendish is targeting the road race.