Mark Cavendish out until mid-April as recovery from illness continues

Mark Cavendish’s (Astana Qazaqstan) race programme has been updated with the British rider confirmed to skip Wednesday's Scheldeprijs in Belgium and instead focus on his recovery from an illness that has wrecked much of his spring campaign.

The veteran sprinter has endured a torrid few weeks. He failed to pick up a result at the UAE Tour in February and missed the last stage due to a fever. He returned to race Tirreno-Adriatico in March but struggled once more before missing the time cut on a brutally tough stage 5.

A week later he raced Milano-Torino but complained of cold-like symptoms at the start before going on to DNF once more. He has not raced at a professional level since then but reportedly took part in a local amateur race on the Isle of Man where he rode to a top-30 finish.

His new return on April 21 at the Presidential Cycling Tour of Türkiye has been provisionally announced by his team.

“After being sick for several weeks following the Tirreno-Adriatico and Milano-Torino, Mark Cavendish has resumed his training, continuing his preparation for his biggest goals of the season. The team has adapted the racing plan, and as a result, Mark will miss the classic race Scheldeprijs and will instead spend some time at a training camp. After that, he plans to compete in the Presidential Cycling Tour of Türkiye and then the Tour de Hongrie,” Vasilis Anastopoulos, the Head of Performance of Astana Qazaqstan Team, said in a statement released by the team.

Read more: Anastopoulos: Mark Cavendish's lead-out riders speak with their eyes, they don't need to say much

Cavendish has centred his entire season around the Tour de France in July, where he will aim to become the outright record leader in stage wins. He is currently tied with Eddy Merckx on 34.

Cavendish, 38, came close to winning his 35th stage win last year but narrowly missed out before crashing out of the race. He made a U-turn on his retirement plans in order to give the record one more shot in 2024.

He started the season brightly with a stage win at the Tour Colombia, and while his next block of racing remains important in terms of confidence and form building, the reality is that all of the early season results matter very little when set against the importance of his Tour de France ambitions.

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