No guarantees Cavendish will race in the Tour again, says chief

BAHRAIN-MCLAREN team principal Rod Ellingworth has admitted it is “hard to say” whether Mark Cavendish will race at the Tour de France again.

Cavendish (below), whose 30 career Tour stage wins put him second only to Eddy Merckx’s 34, was left off the team’s roster for this year’s race, with the Manxman admitting he was not ready to compete after a season heavily disrupted by the coronavirus.

It meant the 35-year-old missed out on the Tour for a second year in a row, and Ellingworth said there were no guarantees he would return.

“It’s hard to say,” Ellingworth said. “I think unfortunately for him, this situation we’ve found ourselves in, not racing, it went against him.

“If you’ve spent two years off the bike having lots of problems you need a consistent period of time to get yourself back to a decent level.”

Cavendish, who was controversially left out of the Team Dimension Data squad last summer after battling his way back from illness and injury, admitted he had needed more racing in his legs to be ready for the Tour and Ellingworth said lockdown training had not suited him.

“I think as we all know with Mark, he’s a bike racer, he’s not particularly into the training, he loves racing,” Ellingworth said.

“I think he was at a bit of a disadvantage in that sense, like many other riders, just with the issues that he had. He just needed some consistent racing.

“So I don’t know, I think time will tell.”