I met him at the Derby Velodrome in 2015. It was the opening round of the revolution series and I took my son who must have been 2.5 yrs old at that point. Mark Cavendish was there, and was obviously the biggest name racing that day, even though Laura Trott (now Kenny) was there too, and various other British Cycling olympic stars, including Shanaze Reade.
We got tickets for the centre area, mostly on the grounds of them being the cheapest, and so stood by the barriers near the warm-up area looking for an autograph. My son was looking forward to meeting him, particulary since we had been to the Isle of Man that year for our summer holiday, and was getting into his cycling, both on the back of Daddy's bike, and also on his own balance bike.
Anyway, by the time that Mark had dragged himself away from the task of being a track cyclist to meet his fans, my son was falling asleep, and barely registered the fact that Mark was there. I told Mark about having just beeen to the Isle of Man. His response?
"Bet it rained while you were there!"
(it had!)
