Manx Tour de France star Mark Cavendish was attacked and held at knifepoint during a burglary at his Essex home.

The cycling star revealed his family’s ordeal in an Instagram post this afternoon.

Cav was recovering from a crash suffered at a Belgian indoor race that resulted in two broken ribs and a collapsed lung when four masked assailants entered his Ongar home in the early hours of November 27.

More on this story in tomorrow’s Manx Independent.