Girvan Three Day race he managed to latch back onto the lead group after being dropped over a climb before winning the finishing sprint ahead of Julian Winn. Whilst at the academy, he won two gold medals at the 2003 Island Games. Cavendish progressed well at the academy. Ellingworth said, "Cav kind of liked it" when asked about the rigid rules and "dictatorship style" of the academy. The junior riders lived on £58 a week and financial management became a part of life at the academy as well as cooking and cleaning. Cycling Weekly described the academy as "a boot camp style training regime" controlled by Ellingworth, who, after finding out they had skipped a three-hour training ride, made the juniors complete four hours hard training at night. He won gold in the madison with Rob Hayles at the 2005 track world championships in Los Angeles. They had not raced together before as Hayles' usual partner, Geraint Thomas, had crashed during training a few weeks earlier—but finished one lap ahead of the field to claim the gold medal, followed by the Dutch and Belgian teams, Cavendish's first world title. Cavendish also won the European championship points race. Professional career Team Sparkasse (2005–06) Cavendish turned professional in 2005 with Team Sparkasse. During this time, he rode the Tour de Berlin and Tour of Britain. He began 2006 with the Continental team, Team Sparkasse, a feeder squad for the . In June, he won two stages and the points and sprint competitions in the Tour de Berlin. He rode for the Isle of Man on the track at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, riding the scratch race. He lapped the field with three others: England's Rob Hayles; Ashley Hutchinson of Australia; and James McCallum of Scotland. Hayles then led him out for the sprint to win gold for the Isle of Man. The race time was 23.05, an average . T-Mobile Team (2006–11) His success at the 2006 Tour de Berlin led to a post as a stagiaire with the from August until the end of the season. His best result on the road was in the Tour of Britain where he came second twice and third once and won the points classification. 2007 His breakthrough came at the 2007 Scheldeprijs race in Belgium, which he won. He went on to win stages at the Four Days of Dunkirk and the