Cavendish revival gathers pace as he sprints clear for second win in succession
Having waited 1,159 days for a race win, Mark Cavendish made it two in two days in the Tour of Turkey.
The Deceuninck-quickstep sprinter, who took his first victory since the 2018 Dubai Tour on Monday, signalled his growing confidence by launching his sprint early yesterday, jumping from the wheel of Alpecin-fenix’s Jasper Philipsen with 175 metres to go.
It was the first time Cavendish, the 2011 road world champion and 30-time Tour de France stage winner, had won races on consecutive days since the Tour of California in 2015 and it allowed him to extend his overall lead of the race to eight seconds ahead of another sprint stage in Kemer today.
“I don’t think it gives me as much confidence as I used to have, but it definitely gives me confidence in myself, I guess,” Cavendish said.
Meanwhile, Jason and Laura Kenny will spearhead a strong British team at an open track meeting in Ghent this weekend as British Cycling desperately tries to give its Olympic hopefuls some racing ahead of Tokyo 2020.
Olympic gold medallists Katie Archibald and Philip Hindes will also be part of the squad, with the focus on bunch and individual races rather than timed events.
Britain’s track cyclists were due to compete for the first time this season at the Newport Nations Cup event from April 22-25, only for it to be cancelled due to Covid-19.
Stephen Park, British Cycling’s performance director, said it was “a fine balance” now between trying to find competitions in which to compete and keeping the GB team’s “Covid-secure bubble” intact. British Cycling has had zero positive tests this year, a fact of which Park said he was “very proud”.
British Cycling is also juggling qualification for this autumn’s track world championships, for which the UCI, the sport’s governing body, requires teams to compete in Nations Cup events.
There are two more scheduled before Tokyo, one in Hong Kong (May 13-16) and the other in Cali, Colombia (June 3-6). Cali is a Covid “red zone”.
Park said British Cycling was in discussions to seek an exemption from the qualification process following Newport’s cancellation, but the plan at the moment was to send a team to Hong Kong.
“The problem is, you’ve got to be clear as to why you’re going,” he said. “We’re going to Ghent for something very specific. Outside of that, you’re breaking up training and, of course, there’s a risk of Covid every time you travel.”
It is not just track cycling that is affected. BMX supercross rider Beth Shriever has still not qualified for the Games and may have to travel to Colombia in search of points, while Tom Pidcock, who is hoping to represent Great Britain in mountain bike, is reliant on other countries being able to compete and maintain their position in the rankings.
“We’ve got people who we see winning medals who might not be able to get to the Games,” Park said.