mark cavendish began his career with the british track cycling team. he won gold in the madison at the los angeles world track championships with rob hayles. they had not raced together before. they finished one lap ahead of the field to claim the gold medal, ahead of the dutch and belgian teams, giving britain its fourth gold at the championships. it was cavendish's first world champion's jersey. cavendish also won the 2005 european championship points race. he began road racing in 2005, riding the tour of berlin and tour of britain as a trialist with team sparkasse.