Mark Cavendish is unlikely to get the chance to break Eddy Merckx’s stage-win record at the Tour de France this year after it was confirmed that he has been selected in his team’s squad for the Giro d’Italia.
The Manx rider unexpectedly equalled Merckx’s mark of 34 wins with four victories in the 2021 edition of the race but the decision of his Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl team to send him to the Giro, which begins in Budapest on Friday, is almost certain to mean he will not be picked for the Tour in July.
Cavendish, who will turn 37 this month, could still find a spot for the grand départ – which this year takes place in Denmark – but presumably only if injury rules out Quick-Step’s other elite sprinter, Fabio Jakobsen. Jakobsen had said in January that he was targeting the Tour, while Cavendish was likely to ride the Giro.
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Cavendish’s quartet of Tour victories in 2021 were all the more remarkable given he had not won a Tour stage since 2016 and had been through years of illness and depression. He would not have featured in the race at all if it were not for an injury to the team’s then top sprinter Sam Bennett, and his call-up came just days before the start of the race. Any hope of breaking Merckx’s record may require fate to intervene once more.
“We go to the Giro d’Italia with a lot of motivation,” Quick-Step’s sports director, Davide Bramati, told Eurosport. “We have a good team at the start, with Mark as our man for the flat. He has won a lot of stages at the Giro, and he can rely on many strong riders to support and guide him in the hectic bunch sprints.”
Cavendish also has an enviable record in the Giro, winning 15 stages between 2008 and 2013.