Tour bound?

Despite Cavendish’s return to the front of the pack Holm said that the plan would likely remain to back Sam Bennett’s defence of the green jersey he won last year. “We don’t have to exaggerate things, we should calm down,” he said. “It was a good start. We’ll focus on the next races.”

However, he did say a healthy and fast Cavendish would give them good back-up options if Bennett became ill or injured in the run-in to the Tour.