24 Heures du Mans: Sir Mark Cavendish to Start the Race

For several years, the 24 Hours of Le Mans has chosen a global personality to start the race. After Roger Federer in 2025, Zinedine Zidane in 2024, LeBron James in 2023, Rafael Nadal in 2018, and Brad Pitt in 2016, who will start the 2026 edition?

Sir Martin Cavendish, the Cycling Icon, to Start the Race

Sir Mark Cavendish, the legendary sprinter of the Tour de France in the 2010s, will say those famous words “Drivers, start your engines.” He states, “France and I, it’s a long history. The Tour taught me everything, the pain, the glory, the pushing of oneself,” as released by the Automobile Club de l’Ouest.

A winner of 34 Tour de France stages, he also won the green jersey twice and was the best sprinter in the Giro d’Italia and the 2011 world champion.

24 Hours of Le Mans: A Race That Transcends its Sport

For Cavendish, the 24 Hours of Le Mans is a competition “that transcends its sport, belonging to all athletes in the world regardless of their practice.” He describes the race as “a cathedral of sport, and I am eager to experience the start from the inside.”

The ACO states that this cycling figure “embodies what our race has represented for over a century: the elite of sport and performance, united by a common passion.”

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