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Blazin' Saddles wonders what possessed Mark Cavendish to don a gaudy white suit while picking up an international cycling award.

So, Miss Paraguay, what first attracted you to millionaire cyclist Mark Cavendish? It can't have been his dress sense, for sure.

Twenty-four hours after picking up an award in Belgium wearing a garish white suit from the Ashley Cole school of sartorial elegance, Cav put in an appearance in Italy with his new girlfriend, Fiorella Migliore, winner of a recent beauty pageant for women of Italian heritage.

More on Miss Italy in the World 2008 later - but first, Blazin' Saddles will cast a typically critical eye over Cav's threads.

Tall, good-looking film stars such as George Clooney and Clive Owen can pull off dressing entirely in white: Cav, put simply, cannot.

Maybe it's his pink face, his jowly jaw line, his diminutive stature - who knows? Certainly, it would help if he didn't appear to shop in Primark. But even if he was sporting head-to-toe bespoke Savile Row, the Manxman would struggle.

Cav's the kind of guy who only suits what he wears in the office on a regular basis: that's to say, tight Lycra. Even then, he does his best to look stupid by sporting ridiculous sunglasses which are way too big for his face. Indeed, he'd be the last person on whom the Fast Show would call for a cameo in their Suits You, Sir' skit.

Cav was in Belgium to collect the prestigious International Flandrian of the Year prize after an explosive season that saw the 24-year-old amass 25 victories, including six Tour de France scalps and the Milan-San Remo classic. BS would say chapeau, but it may give Cav ideas (a white hat would really have taken the biscuit, folks).

He obviously thought he'd dress for the occasion but instead did his best impression of any given Premier League football star on his wedding day. The whiter-than-white monstrosity covering Cav's torso looked like it was made from polyester in a Bangkok factory employing workers short of sight and deprived of thumbs.

It was the kind of suit that you could pour red wine on, only for it to slide to the floor without leaving any trace. Someone once had a pop at Saddles for calling the Team Columbia maestro "Cav the Chav". Well, let's lay that all to rest now, eh?

Talking of vino tinto, such a suit would be better, er, suited for certain riders when popping to the clinic for a quick transfusion, no? ("Go ahead, Dr Fuentes - there won't be any trace of blood on this suit.")

In Cav's case, however, it could well have been inspired from his days as a child ballroom dancing prodigy (don't laugh - he did grow up on the Isle of Mann, after all). Cav once told The Times that dancing was "a good way of meeting girls" and he actually met his last girlfriend (more on whom later) through a dance partner.

Anyway, if the suit wasn't bad enough, it was made infinitely worse by the addition of not only a white shirt, but a thin (and what looked to be plastic) white tie. The only rider in cycling history who could have pulled off this fashion faux pas would have been Mario Cipollini.

With Cipo in mind, maybe Cav's stylist simply got his/her timing wrong - for it may have gone down a treat in Italy a day later when Cav picked up another prize at a Gala near Venice alongside his new girlfriend.

"THE BEST THING IN MY LIFE"

On the back of his road-race success this year, Cavendish released his snappily named autobiography Boy Racer' in June.

The book itself was as so-so as you would expect from someone about as articulate as Wayne Rooney's armpit, containing the expected scattergun of arrogant boasting and one rather bizarre suggestion that rival rider Filippo Pozzato "just fancies me".

Perhaps the most telling part, however, was the book's dedication in which Cav admitted to being both a "charmless scally" and an "arsehole" during a seemingly heartfelt message to his then-girlfriend Melissa.

"Lissie, you were there when I was a 16-year-old scally with no money and sometimes even less charm, and you're still there for me now that I'm a lot older but unfortunately, on occasions, no less of an arsehole," his ghost-writer wrote.

"I won't make it up to you with this book or this dedication; I can only hope that I might by loving you and thanking you for being the best thing in my life."

Well, forget the book and dedication. He didn't make it up to her at all, full stop. So good was Lissie in fact that Cav ditched his childhood sweetheart of eight years at the same moment that the pair were meant to be planning their autumn wedding.

While Lissie was there when Cav was moneyless, it seems that now Cav is rolling in cash he has no need for the previous best thing in his life and can move on to bigger and better things - namely Paraguayan models of Italian provenance.

Signorita Migliore must feel rather special now she has bagged herself the hottest property in cycling - although if she's read his book she'll presumably take everything that Cav says (via an interpreter) with a pinch of salt.

It's not hard to see what Cav sees in his new squeeze - she may have an "outie" bellybutton but even BS would come to terms with this if placed in Cav's Sidi Cycling Shoes. But just what she sees in Bingo is hard to pin-point.

We've already established that it can't be his dress sense or his articulacy or his romantic tendencies or sense of decency or humour. What could it be? BS is well and truly flummoxed here. Any ideas?

Whatever the case, White Suit-Gate has capped Cavendish's transformation from brilliant sports star to wannabe media celebrity. The signs have been there for a while now.

First there was the book, then the bizarrely close friendship with Lance Armstrong and the cringe-worthy, rather star-struck internet video appearance alongside the Texan on his Livestrong website during the Tour.

Now he's got the ubiquitous model girlfriend and hanging out at award ceremonies dressed like P-Diddy, BS fears for the future. While Cav suggested himself that he's no less of an arsehole, his latest antics has BS questioning whether he could he be more?

The guy has forgotten his roots quicker than a peroxide blond after a trip to the local hairdresser. 

See Cav's white suit and new girlfriend on www.twitter.com/saddleblaze

Eurosport