Cavendish joins Tour absentee list

PARIS • Mark Cavendish will not be competing at the Tour de France, after Bahrain McLaren omitted the British cyclist from their squad that was announced yesterday.

He joins the list of absentees which includes four-time Tour de France champion Chris Froome and 2018 winner Geraint Thomas, who were both omitted from the Team Ineos line-up for the event.

Cavendish, who has won 30 stages on the Tour and considered one of the best sprinters in the event's history, joined the team last year along with Belgian rider Dylan Teuns, who has also missed the cut.

Spaniard Mikel Landa, who finished fourth on the 2017 Tour, is set to lead the team at the race this year.

"This year's parcours is very well suited to Mikel and his form is strong," team principal Rod Ellingworth said in a statement.

"The group we have chosen to support him represents our riders who are most suited to the parcours and Tour-ready.

"The past few months have been challenging for all riders to be race fit and it's a credit to all of our guys that we had such a strong line-up to choose from."

Bahrain McLaren's other team members are Wout Poels (Netherlands), Pello Bilbao (Spain), Damiano Caruso (Italy), Rafael Valls (Spain), Marco Haller (Austria), Matej Mohoric (Slovenia) and Sonny Colbrelli (Italy).

Separately, Tour de France organisers have told teams that they will boot them off the race if they return two positive Covid-19 tests in seven days, said official sources yesterday.

The measure concerns not only the riders, but also other team staff inside the race bubble.

The Tour, which was postponed this year owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, starts next Saturday from Nice. There are 28 teams each with eight riders and a total of 25 to 30 people in the bubble.

Tour organisers and a team that had received the health protocols confirmed the measures.

All the riders must undergo two polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests in the days leading up to the start of the Tour.

A team can replace a rider who tests positive before the race.

During the race, anyone who tests positive would have to leave the race bubble and riders would therefore automatically withdraw from the race.

A daily check-up will be carried out within the teams and each doctor will have to report any problems to the race Covid unit.

All those in the race bubble will have to undergo another PCR swab test on the two rest days - Sept 7 and 14.

AGENCE-FRANCE PRESSE, REUTERS