Having taken five stage wins in the Tour de France, the green jersey, the rainbow jersey of world champion and a MBE award from the Queen, Mark Cavendish appears very much in contention for another big moment this evening when the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards are held.
Known by the acronym SPOTY, the award is one of the most prestigious in British sport and attracts a huge amount of media coverage.
Cavendish is the firm favourite with the bookies, with several ranking him at 1/3: William Hill, Bet363, SkyBet,Tote Sport, Paddy Power, 888Sport, Coral, Bet Fred, and others all put him at these odds. He’s far ahead of his rivals, with the golfer Darren Clarke running second, the athlete Mo Farrah third and golfer Rory McIlroy fourth.
“It’s a one horse race as far as the betting goes, punters don’t want to be on anyone else but Cav,” said Coral spokesman Gary Burton to Betrescue. “He has been backed continuously for three months and would be the worst result for us [in terms of bookies’ profits].”
The result will be determined by public vote this evening, with viewers able to phone in their choice during the broadcast of the ceremony from MediaCity UK in Salford.
There has been a big push amongst the British cycling community in recent weeks, with media and several professional riders adding their backing. Cavendish’s future Sky Procycling team-mate Geraint Thomas is one, tweeting his support today using the #cav4spoty hashtag. “He definitely has a big personality!! Plus some half decent results... Got to be only one winner.”
Another is fellow Manxman Jonny Bellis, who competed with the Saxo Bank SunGard team this year and will be with An Post Grant Thornton Sean Kelly in 2012. “His achievements this year and the past five years especially should be recognised fully in the UK,” he told VeloNation. “He is a big personality in the world of cycling so rightly so he should be awarded Spoty this year. That’s not just for himself, but it will make cycling more high profile in the UK, which it fully deserves.”
This is the third year in succession that Cavendish has been nominated, and he will be up against nine other sportsmen. The others in contention are the aforementioned Clarke, Farah and McIlroy, golfer Luke Donald, athlete Dai Greene, cricket players Alastair Cook and Andrew Strauss, the boxer Amir Khan and the tennis player Andy Murray.
The shortlist was selected by a panel of 27 sports editors. Controversially, no women have been nominated, drawing criticism.
Cyclists have won the award just twice in the past; Chris Hoy did so in 2008 after winning three gold medals in the Beijing Olympics, while back in 1965 Britain’s last elite men’s world road race champion Tom Simpson did so.
Top season for future Sky sprinter:
Apart from his Tour and worlds successes, Cavendish also triumphed in several other races in 2011. 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.
However Betfair warns that it isn’t a foregone conclusion. “Backing the favourite has rarely proven a profitable strategy in this market, with Tony McCoy's 2010 success the exception rather than the norm. The legendary jumps jockey wasn't as clear a frontrunner as Cavendish is this time and several other high-profile icons who have been overlooked in the past were.
“Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button and Rebecca Adlington have all been left disappointed after being widely tipped in recent years and there have been several massive shocks, like Calzaghe elbowing his way into what was thought a two-way fight between Hamilton and Ricky Hatton in 2007, and Hoy doing the same to Hamilton and Adlington 12 months later.”
The so-called Betfair Contrarian also points out that in coming from the Isle of Man could also make things tougher. “Recent history suggests that you need a large amount of local support to take the trophy. His island, however, has a population of just 84,655,” he argues. However cycling’s tight community and strong Twitter presence could prove to be a deciding factor tonight, both for Cavendish and also for Lucy Garner.
The junior world road race champion was recently named as one of the ten contenders for the Young Sports Personality award, meaning that there are two rainbow jersey holders in the running for the honours.