Cav returns in Slovenia
Question mark hangs of over Manxman's Grand Tour return
Dimension Data’s team bosses are poised to decide this week if Mark Cavendish will be boarding a plane to the Tour de France in July following his return to racing at the Tour of Slovenia last week.
Cavendish was back in the peloton in Slovenia after nearly three months away with glandular fever. He was 10th in the first bunch sprint on stage one but improved to second behind Sam Bennett (Bora-hansgrohe) on the race’s final day on Sunday.
At the time of going to press the team’s bosses, including team principal Doug Ryder and head of performance Rolf Aldag, were locked into a series of meetings to assess Cavendish’s condition, in the hope of making a decision.
The team is keen to decide Cav’s fate before the British Nationals road race on Sunday, as including Cavendish in the Tour squad will also entail taking his support riders such as Mark Renshaw. Not taking him will mean a substantial recalibration and could open the door to fellow Brit Scott Thwaites riding his first Tour.
How he recovers from the effort in Slovenia will form a key part of the decision, with team doctors closely monitoring his fatigue.
For his part, Cavendish was fairly upbeat after the race, saying he’d “enjoyed” being there. “If you’d told me I’d be anywhere near a win this week, I’d have laughed at you. First time I’m happy with second,” he tweeted after the final stage.
Dimension Data, however, is wary of pushing Cavendish back into racing at the highest level too soon. Speaking ahead of Cav’s return to racing, Dimension Data sports director Roger Hammond said: “A rider's health is paramount and Mark is a friend to me as well as a rider, so I’m conscious of those things. Why would you want to inflict that on somebody and make matters worse? The temptation is there but it’s up to us and the medical team to get it right.
“This team is more conservative than anywhere else, we’re very much healthof-the-humans orientated.”
The team is in less of hurry to decide whether to take Steve Cummings, who is himself coming back from multiple fractures in his shoulder. Cummings is set to ride the National Championship time trial today and that will provide much of the information for the team to make its decision on Cummings’s inclusion.