McLaren adventure excites Cavendish

CYCLING: Mark Cavendish will approach next season “full of confidence” after joining the new-look Bahrain-McLaren.

The 30-time Tour de France stage winner is without a victory since February 2018 following a long battle with the EpsteinBarr virus as well as a series of injuries, but the 34-year-old is looking forward to a fresh start amid the innovative environment of his new employers.

Bahrain-McLaren is effectively a new team, with McLaren joining what was Bahrain-Merida as a 50 per cent stakeholder, but there will be a familiar feeling for Cavendish.

His former coach and ex-Team Sky performance director Rod Ellingworth has been installed as team principal, his old sporting director Roger Hammond is also joining, while he has previously worked on development projects with McLaren, who helped design the bike on which he won the world title in 2011.

“From a personal point of view it’s nice to work with people you get on with, but I look at it from a performance point of view and I think there’s a reason all these people know each other,” said Cavendish. “These people are good at what they do. I’m fortunate that I’ve worked with these guys and they are some of the hardest working and most brilliantly-minded people in cycling.”