Tour de France winner will ride Tour of Britain and worlds road race, but miss time trial
In the wake of reports that Katusha, Omega Pharma Quick Step, the BMC Racing Team and several others are interested in signing Mark Cavendish, his current Sky Procycling team-mate Bradley Wiggins has admitted it might be best for the world champion to move elsewhere.
“On a personal level I have enjoyed riding with him this year and I enjoy his company but I understand why he would probably have to leave,” he told the Guardian. “I love seeing him win as much as anyone else and to see Mark back out on the Tour winning six, seven or eight different stages and challenging for the green, he probably has to go.”
Cavendish moved to the team last autumn and was due to race there until the end of 2014. However Sky’s focus on helping Wiggins become the first-ever British winner of the Tour de France meant that Cavendish got far less support than he previously was accustomed to on the Tour.
Because of that, he clocked up three stage wins this year. That was less than his his four wins in 2008, six in 2009, and five in both 2010 and 2011, and also saw him unable to challenge in the green jersey classification.
“At Sky we have set a precedent now,” said Wiggins, explaining the team’s focus. ‘If we are going to dominate cycling and win three grand tours in a year, we have to start building to that GC [general classification] thing. Unfortunately for Mark, as we saw in the Tour, the two don’t really go well together.
“For his own career I understand why he has to do it but from a selfish point of view I would like him to stay.”
Cavendish will shortly hold talks with Sky principal Dave Brailsford to determine what path his career will take. While the 27 year old has a binding contract which runs for another two and a half years, Brailsford has already said that he wouldn’t stop Cavendish from leaving if he really wanted to.
The stance is not one which would benefit Cavendish only. Brailsford is currently performance director of British Cycling and knows that enabling Cavendish to chase as many wins as possible will boost Britain’s yearly points haul.
Meanwhile Wiggins has given more details about his late-season racing programme. He’ll miss this week’s Tour of Denmark, but will return to action on September 9th in the Tour of Britain. He’ll also ride the world championship road race, but not the time trial.
While he took the silver medal last year and has since won Olympic Gold against the clock, he feels he won’t be able to keep up the necessary training after a long season.
“For me [it is] not big at all,” he said, referring to missing the worlds TT. “I am the Olympic champion, that is the one everyone wants to win. I won’t be doing the time trial. I have a lot of commitments now in the next six weeks and I am probably not going to be able to give the time to the training that is required to win the gold there.
“I will be there in a supporting role to help the guys in the road race and it is the same with the Tour of Britain. A lot of guys have ridden for me all year and rather than just stop and say I have won what I wanted to win and go on holiday for six months and get fat, I thought it would be nice to go back there and help the team in those races.”