Mark Cavendish MBE, who is a World Champion Cyclist, has swapped a saddle for a seat in the cab of a Virgin Trains train.

Mark Cavendish is the winner of 30 stages of the Tour de France. He is a regular user of Virgin Trains service.

Mark, who is a former Sports Personality of the Year winner, travelled up to the full route launch for the Tour de Yorkshire 2018 in the cab of a Virgin Trains service reaching speeds of 125mph.

The World Champion is hoping to join the Tour de Yorkshire next year. He is now planning to experience what it is like to drive a brand new Virgin Azuma. This is one of the fastest trains in the UK which will be launching in 2018.

The 2018 Tour de Yorkshire will take place between the 3rd and 6th May 2018. For 2018 it has been expanded from 3 to 4 stages.

What did the officials say?

Mark Cavendish

Mark said: “The speed of the train was fantastic and the views you get from the front cab of a train are amazing. It was a great experience and, although I travel with Virgin Trains a lot, I’ve never previously appreciated just how quickly the trains move. I was also delighted to be invited to help launch next year’s Tour de Yorkshire route. My family are from Yorkshire and it’s such a passionate area for cycling.”

The General Manager of Virgin Trains East Coast

Natasha Wilding, General Manager for Virgin Trains on its east coast route, explained: “After giving him the chance to get the views from our cab, Cav is now keen to experience what it’s like to actually drive one of our trains. So, we are now arranging for Cav to drive one of our new Virgin Azuma driver simulators so that he can experience what it will be like for our drivers when they introduce our fantastic new fleet of Azuma trains into passenger service from December 2018.

She added “Our 65 Virgin Azumas will bring greater speed, acceleration, comfort and increased capacity to travellers across our east coast route. In the meantime, Virgin Trains is proud to sponsor the King and Queen of the Mountain for the Tour de Yorkshire 2018 – and to welcoming people on-board as they travel to one of the top events in the UK sporting calendar.”

Chief Executive of ‘Welcome To Yorkshire’

Welcome to Yorkshire Chief Executive Sir Gary Verity said: “We know how proud Mark Cavendish is of his family hailing from Yorkshire, and it was great that he could join us to launch the route for the Tour de Yorkshire 2018 by travelling up to the county with help from one of the Tour’s major sponsors, Virgin Trains. Last year’s race attracted 2.2 million spectators and generated £64 million for the local economy, and now that is has been extended from three to four days, the 2018 Tour de Yorkshire promises to be the biggest and best one yet.”

• Visit the Virgin Trains Website
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