Mark Cavendish's victories at the Tour de France were the stuff of legend and have now moved one of his fans in the UK to mark the success - on his thigh.
Paul James is such a fan of the Manx sprinter that he told his friends before the start of this season he would get a tattoo of Cavendish if he won a race while riding for Deceuninck-QuickStep. Once the wins started to flow in, James said he was overcome with excitement.
And though he was unsure about getting a tattoo at all - and initially discouraged by the price of the idea he had - he has now gone ahead with the job and unveiled it for the world to see.
Related News
James, a personal trainer based in Jersey, has had a full-thigh tattoo done on his left leg; based on a photo of Cavendish winning stage 13 of the Tour.
Advertisement
That victory into Carcassonne was Cavendish's fourth and final stage victory of this year's Tour. It brought him level with the all-time Tour stage win record of 34 career victories - a record he now holds with Eddy Merckx.
James has now taken to Twitter to share a photo of his very large left thigh tattoo. He has tagged Cavendish and his wife, Peta. They have yet to respond so we've know way of knowing what they think of the artwork.
However, James has told Cycling Weekly he's very pleased with the tattoo, adding his girlfriend also really likes it.
"My girlfriend loves it and she’s not massively into tattoos and she really likes it, she also likes my reason behind getting it, with Cav inspiring me and his story. So that’s at least a bonus," he said.
"I’m absolutely over the moon with it, I think it looks incredible, it’ll look even better once it’s fully healed. I don’t know if Cav has seen it yet. If he has, I hope he likes it and doesn’t think I’m some fanatic weirdo."
