READY FOR EDDY?

When Mark Cavendish announced in April that he was suffering from the Epstein-Barr virus, so much about his off-colour spring made sense. His anonymous performance in MilanSanremo, in particular, baffled both the Manxman and his Dimension Data team. The German, Rolf Aldag, has been Cavendish’s team manager for almost his entire career, and never before Sanremo had Aldag heard Cavendish enthuse about his form and chances, only to fall woefully short of expectations. At the time of writing, Cavendish faced a race against time to recover before the Grand Départ. He was also left clinging to scant consolations; namely, that neither of his biggest sprint rivals, André Greipel nor Marcel Kittel, had looked supersonic thus far in 2017, and Cavendish outclassed both of them to claim four stage wins 12 months ago. Four more this year would take the Manx Missile level with Eddy Merckx as the most prolific stage winner in the Tour’s history. As Cavendish says, though, even one bouquet at the Tour can save a season, and never has that adage rung truer to the 32-year-old than after this year’s troubled spring.