Tour of Andalucia: Cavendish tells of tooth pain after pulling out of final stage

Mark Cavendish has been talking about the pain of the tooth infection which delayed his start to the season and seemed to have forced him out of the final stage of the Tour of Andalucia.

After a gruelling mountain stage a couple of days ago, Cavendish abandoned the race in its dying hours, making this the first multi-day event since April 2008 in which the Manxman has not scored at least one victory.

The Independent reported that Cavendish was philosophical about the decision to pull out. "It's over now,” he said of the tooth infection, “and my condition's improving fast but it was the worst pain I've ever felt, it hurt so much I was crying like a baby.”

"Once I had a wisdom tooth out without anaesthetic, this was way more painful. The infection killed the nerve on one tooth and another had to be taken out. There was one point where to swab it they had to cut it with a knife. The truth is I wouldn't wish the pain I felt on anybody."

With big objectives later in the year, like the Tour de France's green points jersey and the World Championships in October, Cavendish says the delay in race form may finally not be such a bad thing. "What happened could end up a blessing in disguise as it'll force me to come into form later than planned. It's a long season, Andalusia is only the starting point."

The overall event was won by Cavendish's HTC-Columbia team-mate Michael Rogers.

Team Sky's Simon Gerrans recorded his second podium finish of the week a day after team-mate Bradley Wiggins finished second in the individual time-trial.

Rogers finished third on the 161.4km stage from Torrox Costa to Antequera – won by Spain's Francisco Ventoso (Carmiooro NGC) – to secure top spot in the general classification standings by 19 seconds from Omega Pharma-Lotto's Jurgen Van Den Broeck. Gerrans finished 22nd overall.

Team Sky's Thomas Lovkvist, of Sweden, was 10th overall and his British team-mates Stephen Cummings and Wiggins were 15th and 48th respectively.