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Mark Cavendish misses Vuelta, aims for Tour of Britain instead

OPQS rider back racing following his crash on opening stage of Tour de France last month

Mark Cavendish, who crashed out of the Tour de France last month on the opening stage in Harrogate, will ride next month’s Tour of Britain, with his Omega Pharma-Quick Step focusing its efforts at the Vuelta, which starts on Saturday, on Rigoberto Uran’s challenge for the overall victory.

The 29-year-old suffered a separated shoulder as he crashed within sight of the line in the Yorkshire town, where he had been targeting the stage win and with it the right to wear the leader’s yellow jersey for the first time in his career.

He returned to racing last week in the Tour de l’Ain, which lasted five days, and later this month will participate in another short French stage race, the Tour du Poitou Charentes from 26 to 29 August to help ease himself back into form.

Quoted on the team’s website, its sport and development director Rolf Aldag, said: "Mark has proven that he's worked very hard since his crash at the Tour de France. Just six weeks after his injury, he took part in the Tour de l'Ain and worked as an important supporting rider to his teammates, even though obviously he is understandably not yet back to 100% condition.

“We really appreciated Mark's behaviour and his desire to get back into racing as soon as possible. Now the Team believe that Mark needs a further intermediate step, which will be the Poitou Charentes, in order get some more competition kilometres into his legs and continue his progress of gradual re-entry into competition.

“After the short French stage race, the plan is for Mark to line up for the start of the Tour of Britain with the aim of definitively rediscovering his race feeling by competing and trying to get good results," he added.

Cavendish has ridden the Tour of Britain in each of the last three seasons and this year’s participation will be his eighth since his debut in the race in 2005. Along the way, he’s won ten stages, the first of those a prologue at Crystal Palace in 2007.

Speaking of his recovery from injury, Cavendish said: "After the injury both myself and the Team set a goal to get slowly back into a race environment at the Tour de l'Ain which I've now done. It was not an easy race for me because naturally my shoulder was still bothering me a little as it continues to get stronger each day.

“Now the next step is another shorter stage race at Poitou Charentes. We will continue to monitor my condition week by week; as things stand it's impossible to know how I'll be feeling each week considering the severity of the injury and the accelerated recovery time.

“One thing is for sure, I would like to be at the start for the Tour of Britain for another chance to race in front of British fans again this year which holds lots of fond memories. My goal there will be to do the best I possibly can depending on the condition I'm in."

Assuming Cavendish does line up at the start of the race in Liverpool on 7 September, he will do so alongside former Columbia and Sky team mate Sir Bradley Wiggins, last week confirmed as defending the Tour of Britain title he won last year.

Cavendish’s omission from Omega Pharma-Quick Step’s Vuelta squad means Uran will receive the full support of his team mates at the Belgian outfit during the three week Spanish race, where the line-up includes Tom Boonen and Tony Martin.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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6 comments

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Simmo72 | 10 years ago
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The only thing I have in common with Cavendish is a separated shoulder.....fcuk me it smarts somewhat! I'm having problems getting the strength back to ride the chain gang, kudos for him getting back to race fitness in such a short amount of time. TOB should be a good race for him, hope he gets some wins.

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steviewevie | 10 years ago
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Woo-hoo! Can't wait for this, especially since one stage sees them riding virtually straight past my house.

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sean1 | 10 years ago
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Sir Brad and Cavo are the two most well known British riders so it will be great for the Tour of Britain to have them both riding.

ToB is a sensible option for Cavo, his condition is probably not good enough for a 3 week slog around Spain.

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Beaufort | 10 years ago
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It always looked pretty tough for him to race La Vuelta this year after his injury. This is a logical decision.

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DavidC | 10 years ago
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"One thing is for sure, I would like to be at the start for the Tour of Britain..."

*cough*Start fee*cough*

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SamSkjord replied to DavidC | 10 years ago
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Yeah he's probably really hard up for cash, might even only be on Sram Rival this year

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