Mark Cavendish’s Spring Campaign Sidelined by Illness. Are His Tour de France Ambitions at Risk?
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After pulling out of Milano-Torino last week due to illness, Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan) decided not to start the Classic Brugge-De Panne Wednesday morning. He has yet to confirm when his next scheduled race will be.
It’s disappointing to see Cavendish absent from the excitement of the spring races, but we are hoping that he’s just got his eyes set on Grand Tour season. After all, the 34-time Tour de France stage winner will have another shot at glory starting on June 29 in Florence, Italy. Until then, he’s concentrating on getting healthy.
“He’s sick, so it was not possible to take to the start,” Astana Qazaqstan director Stefano Zanini told GCN at the start of the race in Bruges.
“It’s not easy riding Milano-Torino when you are sick, but here it’s impossible. The Belgian races are very different. They are hard when you are in 100% condition. For sure, it was impossible to take the start here.”
Though there have been rumors of gastrointestinal discomfort, respiratory illness, and cold-like symptoms, it hasn’t been made explicitly clear. In a Eurosport interview at Milano-Torino, Cavendish said, “Like many people, I’m a little bit sick now. It’s okay, and hopefully, I can hang on today and in the next few days with the sickness. You know, when you have a sore throat and stuff like that. The cold is coming, that’s for sure.”
But is this bigger than just some bad luck with germs in the air? Cavendish seemed pretty down about having to drop out in Italy. He won Milano-Torino in 2022 and could certainly use some momentum to take him into one last summer of racing.
Given that Cavendish has had a history of chronic fatigue brought on by the Epstein-Barr virus, it’s easy to wonder if it’s more serious than a sore throat.
The Escape Collective reported that the next chance to see Cavendish perform possibly is at “Scheldeprijs, the sprinter’s classic that sits between the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. It’s an event that holds a particular resonance for him: his second career victory, it marked the start of his rise as the sport’s top sprinter for the next six seasons. In eight starts, he’s finished on the podium seven times.”
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