Cavendish will have to rely on another Briton in Geelong
Fatigued after his debut Tour de France, Geraint Thomas has made the difficult decision to withdraw from the Great Britain team for the world road race championships on October 3rd.
Along with Jeremy Hunt (Cervélo Test Team), the Team Sky rider was recently named as part of a three man squad for the Elite men’s road race. Their task there was to support Mark Cavendish, trying to help the Manx man win the race.
However fatigue from his July efforts mean that Thomas will miss the Australian event, and instead focus on getting ready for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in October. He will represent Wales there.
“I’m not going to be riding because I haven’t felt too good since the Tour,” he told Press Association Sport. “I had a bit of down time and then at Eneco (last month’s Eneco Tour) I was struggling to get back into it.”
“I decided to just pull out because I don’t think I’ll be 100% there so I thought it would be better to step aside and let one of the other guys ride who are going to be more motivated and going a bit better.”
One possible replacement is the very experienced Garmin-Transitions rider David Millar, who is already planning on going to Australia to compete in the time trial.
Bradley Wiggins, who finished fourth in last year’s Tour de France and won the opening time trial in the Giro d’Italia,has already indicated that he does not plan on riding the worlds. Like his team-mate Thomas, he is worn out after the Tour.
Cavendish is currently honing his form in the Vuelta a España. He had a difficult season early on, winning far less than usual, but bounced back at the Tour de France where he picked up five stage wins and finished second in the green jersey competition for best sprinter. The winner of that contest, Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-Farnese Vini) is currently under investigation for alleged doping in Italy, making it possible that Cavendish could yet be crowned the winner.
The Vuelta hasn’t gone to plan for the Manx rider, who was beaten in two bunch sprints, but he did lead the race after his Columbia HTC team won the opening time trial in Seville on Saturday.
Cavendish’s main aim is to use the Vuelta as preparation for the worlds, which is tipped by some – but not all – to go down to a big sprint. He will aim to win at least one stage before flying to Australia. However his chances in the worlds have been compromised somewhat by the recent granting of only three slots in the Elite men’s road race, due to a loss in world ranking points by Great Britain.
Thomas feels that this will complicate things, but that the situation is not terrible. “It definitely limits Cav’s chances, only having two guys to help him,” he admitted.
“He’s just got to try to hang in there. He can look after himself a bit and he’s got that respect in the peloton – people want to be on his wheel, rather than trying to fight him for somebody else’s wheel. That’s a big advantage for him.”
Thomas has himself had a very good season. He was second on stage three of the Tour de France and briefly wore the white jersey of best young rider. Before then, he rode well in the Bayern Rundfahrt, then too placings of fourth, third, ninth and seventh on the first four days of the Critérium du Dauphiné. He was 21st overall there, showing that he has a potential future in major stage races.
He is also a very powerful track rider, and last year recorded a superb 4 minutes 15.105 for the individual pursuit. This makes him one of the fastest riders in history, and sets him up as one of the favourites for gold in the London Olympics. Before then, the Welshman will set about continuing to build on his road career with Team Sky.