Mark Cavendish (Team Columbia – HTC) rolls toward the start line on stage one(Image credit: Stephen McMahon)
ISD-Neri teammates Ian Stannard and Simon Clarke share a laugh before stage two of the Tour of Britain(Image credit: splitsecondimages.co.uk)
Mark Cavendish (Columbia-HTC) has withdrawn from the British team for Sunday’s world championship road race in Mendrisio. The 24-year old has failed to recover from the illness that forced him to pull out of the recent Tour of Missouri, after winning the opening two stages, and has decided to remain at his Italian base in Quaratta.
Ian Stannard (ISD-Neri) has been named in the nine-man British team instead of Cavendish. Bradley Wiggins (Garmin-Slipstream) and Chris Froome (Barloworld) will contest Thursday’s time trial, with Wiggins also opting out of the road race.
Jonny Bellis, the British rider who is also based in Quaratta – and a friend of Cavendish’s from the Isle of Man – remains in a stable condition in hospital following his motor scooter crash on Friday.
The full British team for the road race is: Stephen Cummings (Barloworld), Russ Downing (Candi-TV-Marshalls Pasta), Chris Froome (Barloworld), Roger Hammond (Cervélo Test Team), Dan Lloyd (Cervélo Test Team), David Millar (Garmin-Slipstream), Ian Stannard (ISD-Neri), Ben Swift (Team Katusha) and Geraint Thomas (Barloworld).
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Richard Moore is a freelance journalist and author. His first book, In Search of Robert Millar (HarperSport), won Best Biography at the 2008 British Sports Book Awards. His second book, Heroes, Villains & Velodromes (HarperSport), was long-listed for the 2008 William Hill Sports Book of the Year.
He writes on sport, specialising in cycling, and is a regular contributor to Cyclingnews, the Guardian, skyports.com, the Scotsman and Procycling magazine.
He is also a former racing cyclist who represented Scotland at the 1998 Commonwealth Games and Great Britain at the 1998 Tour de Langkawi
His next book, Slaying the Badger: LeMond, Hinault and the Greatest Ever Tour de France, will be published by Yellow Jersey in May 2011.
Another book, Sky’s the Limit: British Cycling’s Quest to Conquer the Tour de France, will also be published by HarperSport in June 2011.
