Mark Cavendish will miss this year’s Tour de France after being omitted from Team Dimension Data’s squad. The 2011 world road race champion has competed in every edition of the race since 2007, but he will miss out this year after failing to make the cut.
The 34-year-old has struggled with illness since being diagnosed with the Epstein-Barr virus back in April 2017 and he went on to brake his collar bone at the Tour de France later that year. Cavendish was then eliminated from last year’s race when he finished outside the time limit on stage 11 and he took a further break from the sport in August 2018 due to the presence of the virus.
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The sprinter, who became the first Briton to win the Tour’s green points jersey in 2011 and is just four short of Eddy Merckx’s overall record for most stage wins, last competed in the Tour of Slovenia in June, but he has not done enough to earn a place in the squad.
Italian sprinter Giacomo Nizzolo, who won a stage at the Tour of Slovenia, has taken Cavendish’s place on the team, while Steve Cummings is the only Briton in Dimension Data’s eight-man squad. This year’s Tour is due to get underway in Brussels on Saturday before reaching a conclusion on the Champs-Elysees three weeks later.
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