The New Year is only a couple of weeks away. The start of the Challenge Ciclista a Mallorca 2012 bicycle race in February (5th to 9th) is getting nearer, too. One of cycling’s all time heroes is in Mallorca now, Mark Cavendish, the 2011 Road Race World Champion from the Isle of Man, to test the waters or whatever else he might be testing. The cyclist has only recently been named as the best British sportsman of the year by the Sports Journalists’ Association of Great Britain (SJA), having won five stages of the Tour de France earlier this year. And, a few weeks ago, his achievements were recognized by Queen Elizabeth II with an MBE.

Originally, Cavendish used to ride for the British Track Cycling team. Ultimately, he competed for UCI ProTeam HTC-Highroad until this season just gone, but he came to Felanitx yesterday with team mates from his new squad, Team Sky. The team is doing a training camp in Mallorca this week. I do not know if Cavendish and Team Sky are also preparing themselves for the forthcoming Mallorca Challenge. He, and they, might well be, as Alberto Contador, Cadel Evans and Andy and Frank Schleck have all confirmed their participation for the event in February.

The photo (top) was taken in Felanitx, Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: December 14th, 2011. The time was 13:54:18. The photo (bottom) was borrowed from the Internet, courtesy of teamsky.com.

Thank you very much.