Mark Cavendish wears the race leader’s jersey for the first time in four years after grabbing the lead during the team time trial of the Coppi e Bartali in Italy
Mark Cavendish is in a race leader’s jersey for the first time in four years after the opening day of the Settimana Coppi e Bartali in Italy.
The 35-year-old narrowly missed out on victory in the first of the day’s two stages, but took over the race lead from Jakub Mareczko of Vini Zabu after his short-handed Deceuninck-QuickStep squad finished third in Tuesday afternoon’s team time trial.
It is the first time since the 2017 Abu Dhabi Tour that Cavendish has led a stage race, while his second place in the stage came on the back of his runners-up spot in the GP Monsere two weeks ago, his highest-placed finish since June 2018.
Mark Cavendish has continued his improved form by taking the race lead in the Coppi e Bartali
‘To be leading a race for the first time in four years is super nice,’ Cavendish said. ‘With Deceuninck-QuickStep, we only have five guys here so our backs were up against the wall a little bit but everyone looked after me so well this morning and I’m sorry I couldn’t pay them back with a win.
‘In the team time trial we gave everything and it will be nice to wear the leader’s jersey for a day, and I look forward to supporting Mauri (Vansevenant) and Mikkel (Honore) once we get to the climbs.’
Meanwhile, the Ineos Grenadiers dominated the time trial on stage two of the Volta a Catalunya.
Australian Rohan Dennis took victory for the team while both Geraint Thomas and Adam Yates moved into the top 10 overall with strong showings over the undulating 18.5km course.
However, Chris Froome lost more time as he finished 79th, more than two minutes down on Dennis’ time.