Cav: No pressure on me in Tour
MARK CAVENDISH insists he is under no pressure to deliver in this year’s Tour de France, having only just made the cut after a long battle against illness.
The 30-time Tour stage winner was confirmed in Team Dimension Data’s squad on Monday, having lost three months of the season to the EpsteinBarr virus.
Cavendish won four stages of the Tour last year, but this summer one would be massive for a rider whose participation had been in doubt for several weeks.
“I don’t think it will be a failure if I don’t win a stage,” he said on the eve of today’s opening stage in Dusseldorf.
“Apparently it signals the end of my career if I only win three (in a single Tour). But I’m realistic. I’ll be happy if I win a stage, we can race as a team and get good results.”
This year’s Tour route features nine stages which look ripe for a sprint finish, an unusually large number and one that Cavendish could not resist.
“I’m not in ideal condition, but the good thing about being a sprinter is sometimes you can win on luck,” he said.
“If you pick the right wheels and get the right run there’s a chance you can win. It’s worth coming here with that chance because there are a lot of sprint days.”
Cavendish only returned in the Tour of Slovenia in mid-June, having been out since March. The 32-year-old said all signs of the virus – which can cause glandular fever – are gone.
“I was a bike rider because I didn’t go to medical school,” he said. “The thing about this illness is you can’t predict it. If I was on the limit then I wouldn’t be here, but I seem to have a good feeling and ultimately it’s the Tour de France.”
POLLOK manager Tony McInally is hoping his new-look side can compete at the top of the Super Premier Division this season.
It’s been a summer of comings and goings at Newlandsfield Park with 10 new players arriving and nine departing
The Lok boss has also resigned 10 players from the squad that won the West of Scotland Cup and finished eighth in the league last season.
McInally said: “The changes I’ve made were necessary, I had to get younger players in to freshen up the team so we could compete in this league.
“Last season I had a group of players that were at the wrong end of their careers, I had four