Sports Personality of the Year 2011 top 10: Mark Cavendish

Mark Cavendish still proudly wears the top he was adorning when he won the road cycling world title.

"Every time I train, I wear this jersey, it's pretty emotional putting it on," he said.

Cavendish did an amazing cycling double this year. He became Britain's first winner of the Tour de France green jersey - the award for the race's best sprinter - and he also won the world road race, the first British male champion for 46 years to do so.

"It's been the most incredible year I could imagine," he told SPOTY.

"On the bike, the two things I planned this year were the green jersey and the world championships.

"The green jersey is the biggest pinnacle in the sport for a sprinter. To get that and the world title. To go down in history you have to win that one."

Manxman Cavendish, who has now won 20 stages of the Tour in his career - putting him sixth on the all-time list, crowned his victory by winning a frenetic sprint finish on the Champs-Elysees.

Cavendish's stage win in Paris followed similar successes there in 2009 and 2010, making him the first man to have won three final stages in succession since the legendary Belgian Eddy Merckx in 1972.

The 26-year-old also achieved another stunning landmark in 2011, as he became Britain's first male world road race champion for 46 years.

The eight-strong GB team ignored all breakaways to control the peloton over the 266km course before delivering Cavendish to the line in style in Denmark.

He said: "The team was absolutely phenomenal. We worked hard for three years for it and they rode out of their skins to support me.

"I've got goosebumps now talking about the road world championships. Everytime me and the other lads talk to each other, we just go on about that race.

"It's the most spectacular thing to happen in my career and I'm so proud to have been a part of that.

"The world championships are all about national pride. That's what makes it so different. For a group of guys to work hard for three years just to bring the jersey back to the country, it's something the country can be so proud of.

"Every single one of us, it's been the biggest buzz of our careers."

The only other British cyclist to win the road world title, Tommy Simpson, won Sports Personality the same year - 1965.

Stories from Mark Cavendish's year:

Cavendish wins world road title

Cavendish takes Tour green jersey