manx cat? love the photo the ever so subtle non but almost kissing cheek expression is priceless.

The Undrugged Brit?

Doesnt he already have a nickname?

'The Manx Express'

The Manx Missile...

Alex T

Stolen from the BBC: Cannonball Cavendish.

mad vish

The Third Leg

CAVeman

The Cave Man

The Flying Dish

Manxocet- as in the French built missle Exocet.

Toys out of Pram? :-D I've never seen someone so dismissive of reporters after a bad stage.

the finisher..... simply because he is!

I would be honoured if he took up my tag of Reaper as he reaps what his team sow.

Air Cav - sprints lighter than air and after the US Army reg.

"THE BUTLER "

He (mark caven)DISHES out punishment and serves us with wins/glory

Mark the Shark -- not great but it works.

Captain Caveman - if he grew a beard, he'd even look like the 70s superhero. Zowie Cavey!

Mad Manx

Mach Cavendish

or just Mach One.

the cat

We were knocking around some names and we came up with "The Dishwasher"

Congrats to Cavendish for a great Tour : )

I like the tricycle one or maybe Turbo.

The Quitter... you don't enter The Tour to chuck it after a few stages. Either aim to finish or don't enter. Oh and it would have been a different story had Tom Boonen been there.

A slight variation on a theme The Manx CATapult?

But Boonen wasn't - he was speeding ( in the worse senses ) !

It's like asking would Armstrong have won the Tour if Merck was there.

Probably not but we will never know.

I can't believe that anyone could have a negative comment about Cav's performance this year!? Don't forget Boonen WAS there last year, and was comfortably beaten countless times by all the sprinters Cav left in his wake four times this year. Cav simply needs to build on his experience and stamina to go for high placings - even when he can see he may not win a stage outright - and he will then be able to walk away with the points jersey too.

As for 'chucking it in' - it's by no means uncommon for the World's best sprinters to leave the Tour before its conclusion. At least Cav had the (very worthy) excuse of leaving to train for the Olympics. I'll wager he will finish the 2009 Tour, probably having won stages against Boonen.

Come on, stop trying to criticise the first genuinely great cyclist this country has produced since Tom Simpson.

There's only one name. Dish. He dishes out the pain to Robbie and all the others.

Cogman, you are an idiot. How can anyone doubt that Cav is the fastest sprinter in the world? He has beaten Boonen in a bunch finish before, and like road_addict said he's quicker than the guys who have beaten the 'Tournado'.

We also all knew that Cav was going to pull early because of the Olympics; he's not a quitter, its just sense. As one of the favourites for gold on the track, can you blame him for resting before one of the biggest events of his career so far?

Achilles as a nickname? Ignoring the whole Achilles heel thing though...

i think just call him "The Hype"

I would say Cavoom.