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Top cycling awards for Cav in Belgium and Italy
MARK Cavendish was not able to attend the Isle of Man Cycling Association function on Saturday evening as he was collecting awards in Belgium and Italy in recognition of his amazing 2009 season.
He was in fact in Belgium on Saturday to collect the prestigious International Flandrian of the Year prize and then travelled to Italy on Monday for the Gran Gala Ciclistico in Conegliano, near Venice.
In a ceremony broadcast live on Belgian television and organised by newspaper Het Nieuwsblad, a jury of team managers, sports directors and media personalities voted for Cavendish as top international cyclist of the year.
'It's a tremendous honour to get this award. It's something really important to me,' said Mark. 'You just look at the names of the people who've got this prize before, like Fabian Cancellara last year, and you can see how special it really is.
'As a kid I would watch Belgiiu bike races for hours on TV and I love racing there now because the Belgians have a real appreciation for cycling and cyclists. But I could never have dreamed of getting an award like this one day. It's a real honour to receive it.'
At the Gran Gala Ciclistico in Italy, images of Cavendish's Milan-San Remo victory were played on a huge screen as he stood alongside his Team Columbia directeur sportif Valerio Piva, who collected an award for the team's 86 victories during 2009.
As well as winning Milan-San Remo this year, Cavendish won six stages of this year's Tour de France, three stages of the Giro d'Italia and 23 professional wins in total.
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Weather for Isle of Man
Wednesday 08 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 3 C to 4 C
Wind Speed: 23 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Light rain
Temperature: 7 C to 8 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: South west
