24 Hours of Le Mans: who is this figure in world cycling who will give the start of this 2026 edition?

For several years, les 24 Heures du Mans choose a global personality to start the start of the event.

After Roger Federer in 2025, Zinédine Zidane in 2024, Lebron James in 2023, Rafael Nadal in 2018, or even Brad Pitt in 2016, who will be the “Starter” of this 2026 edition ?

The emblematic figure of world cycling Sir Martin Cavendish will launch the start of the 24 Hours of Le Mans

Whoever pronounces these famous words “pilots, start your engines” will be a great cycling champion: Sir Mark Cavendish. He was the great sprinter of the Tour de France in the 2010s. France and me are a long story. “The Tour taught me everything, pain, glory, surpassing oneself,” he declared in a press release issued by the Automobile Club de l’Ouest.

Winner of 34 stages of the Grande Boucle, he also won the famous green jersey twice. He also finished best sprinter at the Giro di Italia and world champion in 2011.

The 24 Hours of Le Mans: “A race that transcends its discipline”

For him, the 24 Hours of Le Mans is an event “which transcends its discipline, which belongs to all athletes in the world whatever their practice”. He describes the classic Le Mans as  a cathedral of sport, and I can’t wait to experience its departure from the inside…

The ACO indicates that this figure of world cycling “ embodies what our race has represented for more than a century : the elite of sport and performance, united around the same passion .”

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