Cavendish's future in question after Tour snub

As Mark Cavendish misses out on the big show, Paul Knott asks, ‘is this the last time we see the Manxman, or is another comeback on the cards?’

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The drama of the Tour de France started early this year, as five days before the peloton rolled out of Brussels, the announcement came that Mark Cavendish wouldn’t be in Belgium to start his 13th Grande Boucle.

From the outside looking in and ignoring the supreme legacy of the 30-time Tour stage winner, his results this season seem to justify the decision. Third place on stage three of the Tour of Turkey in April was his highest race finish since June 2018.

That comes with the giant asterisk that is Cavendish’s long recovery from Epstein-Barr syndrome, which he started the Tour with last year, unknowingly, and missed the time cut as the race hit the mountains.

Despite this lean set of results, sources close to Cavendish claim that away from the spotlight of races he was slowly building and his numbers in training have been similar to those prior to the 2016 Tour de France, where the Manxman rekindled some of his best form, winning four stages before taking Madison silver at the Rio Olympics.

Cavendish’s good friend and former sports director Brian Holm was surprised by the decision and admitted there were times in the past where the Manxman’s form was doubted. “Of course I expected him to go, the last two years he crashed and had Epstein-Barr but this year he should be fresh so it’s a bit strange,” the current DeceuninckQuick Step sports director revealed.