André Greipel may have stepped out of the sprint battles but as he watches from the sidelines, he told Wielerflits he believes former key rival Mark Cavendish has shown he has what it takes to be successful in the sprints at the Tour de France this year.
Last year Cavendish made the most of an unexpected spot in the French Grand Tour to deliver a fairytale race as he took out four stage victories and the green jersey, equalling Eddy Merckx's long-standing record of 34 Tour de France stage wins. Yet that hasn’t been enough to assure him a start this year, such is the level of sprinters within QuickStep-AlpaVinyl.
Cavendish is scheduled for a Giro d’Italia start while Fabio Jakobsen is set to make his debut at the Tour de France, after last year taking three victories and the points jersey at the Vuelta a España, his first Grand Tour wins since his life-threatening accident in the 2020 Tour de Pologne.
"You could clearly see in the Tour of Oman that Mark is still the fastest," Greipel said in an interview with Wielerflits, before Cavendish won stage 2 of the UAE Tour and so equaled Greipel's 158 career win.
“I see no reason to leave him at home. I saw early last year that he was back on the level. I was called crazy when I said that, but look how many Tours sprints he won. It's not my decision, but I wouldn't think it smart not to take him to France."
Cavendish came second on the first stage of the Tour of Oman, unleashing a powerful turn of speed but had too much ground to make up. He turned that speed into victory on stage 2.
The quandary, however, is that Jakobsen has also had an impressive start to 2022, winning two stages at Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana and two at Volta as Algarve, also taking out the points classification at both races.
“In Valencia, Fabio was impressive,” Greipel told Wielerflits. “Sprinting Alexander Kristoff out of the wheel, that says something. He looks strong, so I don't see any reason not to take Fabio to the Tour. It is a difficult choice to make.”
A choice Jakobsen himself has acknowledged is not yet set in stone, pointing out that he is not the only sprinter on the team’s long list for the Tour de France.
“The Tour de France is on the plan, but that means you need to be good when the Tour de France starts,” Jakobsen told reporters at the Volta ao Algarve.
One thing Greipel was sure about, though, was that QuickStep-AlphaVinyl shouldn’t take both.
"In my opinion, two sprinters in one selection is always one too many."
