Cavendish ready for Tour

Admitting he had struggled to regain his form after a three-month layoff due to illness, former world champion Mark Cavendish (above) said yesterday he had rushed his comeback in order to spearhead South African team Dimension Data at the Tour de France starting this weekend.

The 32-year-old British sprinter, sidelined since March while recovering from glandular fever, returned to competition at the Tour of Slovenia last week, where he took second place on the fourth and final stage.

He was included in a nine-member squad announced by Di-Data for the three-week Grand Tour contest.

“If I am being totally honest, had this not been the Tour de France we may have collectively taken a different approach with regards to my inclusion,” said Cavendish, a 30-time individual Tour stage winner.

Cavendish would be joined in the Dimension Data team by countryman Steve Cummings, the British road race and time trial champion, who won stages at the 2015 and 2016 editions of the Tour de France.

The squad also featured five other foreign riders – Norwegian Edvald Boasson Hagen, Austrian Bernhard Eisel, Belgian Serge Pauwels, Australian Mark Renshaw and Briton Scott Thwaites.

While the Di-Data squad had boasted five African riders when they made their Tour debut as a Pro-Continental outfit in 2015, this year’s team included only two representatives from the continent, with Reinardt Janse van Rensburg and debutant Jaco Venter named in the line-up.