Cavendish, earning his stripes, and his new nickname.

Well, I have to give credit where credit is due, no matter how long the forthcoming year is going to be watching (and listening to) Mark Cavendish, the boy racer from the Isle of Man, who will now wear the rainbow stripes after winning the world championships yesterday.

And certainly an equal amount of credit must go to the entire Team Britian squad who made it their mission to win this World Championship years ago when they saw the layout would favor the sprinters.  And the sprinters, they did come: Hushovd, Boasson Hagen, Farrar, Cancellara, Greipel, Goss.....none could best Cavs, even when it looked like he was boxed in.  Defending champion Thor could do nothing as he got tangled up behind a crash and never even got to fight for the sprint finish, but rather was left to cry a single solitary rainbow tear over his Oakley Jawbones.

And speaking of Team Britian, the boys really turned themselves inside out for Cavs.  However today, the day after a very long night of celebration to be sure....it seems that Team Britain is seeing their insides turned out once again, according to Twitter..

And speaking of Twitter, back on July 4th, after Tyler Farrar took the sprint stage victory in the Tour de France, Bob Roll made the statement that "Sprinters are the honey badgers of the peloton" on his own Twitter feed.....an obvious nod to the fierceness and tenacity of the animal, but also perhaps to the original "Badger", Bernard Hinault:

As there can only be one "Badger" and Hinault will forever embody this moniker, I think Roll may have unintentionally stumbled upon something else regarding the interlacing of personas, more specifically of the fearless sub-species of Honey Badger and sprinters - and even more specifically our new World Champion sprinter, Mark Cavendish.  Other nicknames just haven't stuck for Cavendish....'Cavs', "Boy Racer', 'The Manx Missile,'....even our own attempt with 'Cavendouche.'   Such names have fallen from him like water droplets rolling off freshly shaven legs slathered with embrocation on a cold misty morning.  But "Honey Badger"?  Yeah - I'm feeling it....

"Honey Badger is pretty bad ass...." and so are you Cavs....congrats.