8pm tonight. We'll be sitting down for the annual road.cc Christmas nosh up but we'll have our phones with us, because it's also the time when the annual BBC Sports Personality of the Year kicks off. And the runaway favourite is Mark Cavendish.

That's hardly surprising when you think about the year he's had. World Champion. Five Tour de France stage wins, and the green jersey. Two Giro stage wins. And more. With the golfing block vote split three ways and the rest of the field having good rather than outstanding years, Cav looks to be a shoe-in and the bookies agree: last we looked he was 2/7 to take the title, with Darren Clarke next best placed at 11/2.

He won't win if we don't all vote. So don't forget! 8pm onwards, BBC1. We'll be raising a glass in Cav's honour sometime near the end of our slap up meal, hopefully…