Support road.cc

Like this site? Help us to make it better.

news

Mark Cavendish returns to Tour de France after two-year absence

“I am going to do all I can to grab this opportunity with both hands” says ex-world champion as he is named in place of injured Sam Bennett

Mark Cavendish will race the Tour de France, which starts in Brest on Saturday, after he was named in Deceuninck-Quick Step's line-up for the 108th edition of the race, with Sam Bennett, winner of the points jersey last year, failing to recover from a knee injury.

Speculation over whether Cavendish, now 36, would ride the race first arose a fortnight ago when team boss Patrick Lefevere suggested that he could replace Bennett if the Irishman, winner of the points competition last year, did not recover in time.

However, on Friday he told Cyclingnews.com that Bennett “should be okay” to line up at the star in Brest and that he had told sports director Brian Holm to inform Cavendish that he would not be at the race.

Lefevere also said that there had never been any question of selecting both sprinters for the Tour, saying that Cavendish’s presence may have had an unsettling effect on Bennett’s confidence.

> No Cav at Tour de France: Taking both Mark Cavendish and Sam Bennett was never a prospect, says Deceuninck Quick Step boss

Joining the former world champion in the line-up announced today are the current wearer of the rainbow jersey, Julian Alaphilippe, plus Tour of Flanders winner Kasper Asgreen, Davide Ballerini, Mattia Cattaneo, Tim Declercq, Dries Devenyns and Michael Mørkøv, who will act as leadout man in the sprint stages.

“I am delighted to be going back to the Tour de France with Deceuninck-Quick-Step,” said Cavendish after his selection was confirmed.

“Obviously, the circumstances with Sam could be better – he had a special Tour last year and I am sad for him not being able to defend his green jersey.

“But at the same time, I am excited to be going back to a race that I have such an affinity with and where I have so much history.

“It is the biggest bike race in the world, and I am going to do all I can to grab this opportunity with both hands”, he added.

Bennett said he was “very disappointed” at missing the chance to defend the green jersey, but added that his injury meant that he would not be in the right physical condition to take part in the race.

“I had a very minor incident during training a couple of weeks ago, which affected my knee,” he said.

“While the injury I sustained is very short-term, it impacted my training for the biggest bike race in the world all too much and left me without enough time to be race fit.

“Le Tour deserves me at my best and it would do my team, and myself, an injustice to race in my current condition. I wish the whole Wolfpack [as the team is nicknamed] a successful three weeks on the road of France,” he added.

Cavendish is the most successful sprinter in the history of the race with 30 stage wins, the first coming in Chateauroux on the fifth stage of the 2008 edition. The town, where the Manxman won again in 2011, the year he won the green jersey, also hosts a stage finish this year.

His inclusion in the Deceuninck-Quick Step line-up will inevitably raise talk of whether he can beat Eddy Merckx’s all-time record, including time trials, of 34 stages.

After the 2016 Tour, when he won four stages, including on the opening day in Normandy to take the yellow jersey for the only time, there seemed every prospect of him eventually surpassing the Belgian’s total one day.

But the following year, he went out due to a crash in an incident that saw Peter Sagan disqualified from the race, and the following year, still to add to his total, he was eliminated after missing the time limit on the eleventh stage.

It later emerged that he had been struggling with the Epstein-Barr virus, and Team Dimension Data did not select him for the 2019 Tour, nor did Bahrain-McLaren last year.

This year, however, he has been rejuvenated after returning to Deceuninck-Quick Step in a one-season deal only finalised in December.  

In April, he won four stages at the Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey, where his Stage 2 win was his first success in more than three years, and earlier this month took the final stage of the Baloise Belgium Tour, his fifth win of the season, against a number of riders who will be his sprint rivals at the Tour de France.

He may not pass Merckx’s total over the next four weeks, but with eight flat stages on the parcours this year, there’s every chance he will nudge closer to it.

Deceuninck-Quick Step sports director said of Cavendish’s selection: “It’s great to have someone with his history and experience on the team.

“He will have a superb lead-out with Ballerini and Mørkøv, and the plan is to take it day by day and see how things go.”

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.

Add new comment

22 comments

Avatar
Rendel Harris | 2 years ago
0 likes

Great to see Mark get another chance, never thought we'd see him there again. Lots of politics involved judging by the rumblings from Lefevere, who told Sporza: "I can't prove he [Bennett] doesn't have knee pain, but I'm starting to think more and more that it's more fear of failure than just pain" and "We thought Bennett was on the right track. Then it turns out that he has told us anything but the truth. He said three different things to three different people on the squad. That's not the way it's played." Bennett is leaving at the end of the season, of course...

Avatar
Secret_squirrel replied to Rendel Harris | 2 years ago
1 like

There's also the possibility that Lefevere may have had to beat Marks price down and was using Sam's "fitness" to do that, as Lefevere had already said Mark wasnt going to race the TdF on his (current) negotiated pay.

Avatar
PRSboy | 2 years ago
0 likes

Well I for one will be shouting at the telly at the end of the sprint stages if Cav is in contention!  Go Cav!!

Avatar
wtjs | 2 years ago
3 likes

I will be overjoyed if he wins one stage, never mind more. It's an exceedingly difficult thing to do. Good luck, Cav!

Avatar
Dnnnnnn | 2 years ago
0 likes

Pleased he's back but I hope he doesn't overtake Merckx's record - Cav's great but isn't in that league.

Avatar
Secret_squirrel replied to Dnnnnnn | 2 years ago
5 likes

Surely if he does overtake it, by definition he is in the same league?  He may not have the whole qualities of Merckx's but his record in TdF stages would speak to itself.

Avatar
Dnnnnnn replied to Secret_squirrel | 2 years ago
0 likes

I think it's the "whole qualities" that are the difference. Stage wins are an easy yardstick - but rather a partial one. Most here understand it's not really like-for-like - but their two records will be compared as if they were.

It's not a big deal - just doesn't sit quite right with me (for all that matters!).

Avatar
Welsh boy replied to Dnnnnnn | 2 years ago
1 like

Duncann wrote:

I think it's the "whole qualities" that are the difference. Stage wins are an easy yardstick - but rather a partial one. Most here understand it's not really like-for-like - but their two records will be compared as if they were.

It's not a big deal - just doesn't sit quite right with me (for all that matters!).

Please define "whole qualities", it is a meaningless statement without a point of reference but i agree, the comparison is not like for like, Merckx came from a simpler era where there was not the same level of competition for him (I know you can only beat who is put in front of you and lets not start counting failed dope tests) as there has been for Cav who specialises in one specific skill so I think to get close to the same number of wins but in a much more fiercly contested and specialist field puts him in a higher league for tour stage wins.

Avatar
Dnnnnnn replied to Welsh boy | 2 years ago
0 likes

Welsh boy wrote:

Please define "whole qualities", it is a meaningless statement without a point of reference

GC wins is the obvious one - you need a fuller set of attributes to win overall. But you could include things like overall effect on the race, attacks, variety of victories (e.g. mountain stages, TTs, etc.).

Avatar
Nick T replied to Dnnnnnn | 2 years ago
1 like

Cipollini won almost twice as many Giro stages at Merckx, does that make him twice as good?

Avatar
ktache replied to Nick T | 2 years ago
2 likes

But did the cannibal ever look this good...?

Avatar
Rendel Harris replied to Dnnnnnn | 2 years ago
2 likes

I don't think it would make any difference, nobody with any sense would start to say Cav was level with Merckx in the pantheon just because he equalled or beat the TdF stage record. Merckx holding the stage record is of course a reflection of his greatness but also something of an anomaly, the holders of most stage wins in the Giro (Cipollini) and Vuelta (Rodriguez) are both sprinters. All Cav taking the record would do would mark him as the greatest TdF pure sprinter.

Sadly I feel it's all a bit academic, I reckon one win, possibly in a stage with a reduced peleton from echelon splits, is the best we can hope for (would love to come back in a month to say how wrong I was!).

Avatar
peted76 replied to Dnnnnnn | 2 years ago
1 like

Duncann wrote:

Pleased he's back but I hope he doesn't overtake Merckx's record - Cav's great but isn't in that league.

Merckx is a legend ? His achievements are unparalleled, but.. 'controversial opinion alert'.. he was caught doping four times in eight years, so surely this cheapens his legend status. Not talking about it doesn't make it untrue. We'll never know the truth and speculation is a road to nowhere, what could have been blah blah..  drugs to cheat certainly have changed through the years, but cheating is cheating no matter which side of the fence you sit. 

If Cav gets one stage it's enough for me to blub like a small child in front of the TV... four stages and Hollywood should come knocking, it'd be worthy of one of those brainlessly predicable American comeback movies. 

Avatar
Sriracha replied to peted76 | 2 years ago
1 like

But each is measured by the yardstick of their peers. I'm guessing most of Merckx's were similarly fuelled?

Avatar
Rendel Harris replied to peted76 | 2 years ago
1 like

I'm not in the business of defending dopers, but from memory I thought Merckx was only caught three times: the first was in the Giro in very suspicious circumstances (the UCI revoked his ban for it), quite possibly a setup by Italians seeking to assist their own riders (the corruption in Italian cycling at that time was  incredible; one time in the '70s when Moser was leading Merckx in the mountains Italian TV sent their helicopter to hover low between them, simultaneously pushing Moser up the hill and Merckx back down); the second he took a cough medicine prescribed by the Moletini doctor that contained a banned substance that wasn't listed on the bottle; the third (and most dubious) he said he'd been given a supplement by a doctor who assured him it was legal but wasn't. He may have doped but I'd say it's by no means a certainty.

Avatar
Secret_squirrel | 2 years ago
0 likes

Considering it was looking done and dusted in favour of Sam on Friday this is a fantastic turnabout.  Fingers crossed for an amazing tour for him. 

Avatar
Sevenfold | 2 years ago
2 likes

Flippin' great news for Cav. So, so pleased for him.

Avatar
peted76 | 2 years ago
8 likes

.

Avatar
peted76 | 2 years ago
4 likes

I literally feel like doing a little dance aroud the office right now and am grinning to myself...  

 

Avatar
STiG911 | 2 years ago
4 likes

AWESOME!

Fell sorry for Sam, but hope Cav can to get back to winning at le Tour!

Avatar
EddyBerckx | 2 years ago
6 likes

IT'S COMING HOME.

 

 10

Avatar
MattieKempy | 2 years ago
3 likes

Bloody brilliant news. Even to get selected after the tribulations of the last couple of years is a triumph. Hopefully he can sneak a win too!

Latest Comments