“It took a bit longer than I'd have liked to shift a cold" - Mark Cavendish adapts Spring Programme after disrupted few weeks

Mark Cavendish's final season in the professional peloton has so far been a disrupted one. With plenty of DNS and DNFs due to illness, the sprinting legend has now reset his spring programme. 

“It took a bit longer than I'd have liked to shift a cold, therefore affecting my training plan,” Cavendish explains in conversation with Cycling News. “I'd like to be racing at full fitness, especially given the intense style of racing in Belgium, so we've adapted my race program to accommodate this.”

After missing the time-cut on a stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico, Cavendish failed to finish Milano-Torino before skipping Classic Brugge-De Panne altogether. “Mark had a respiratory infection during Tirreno-Adriatico and later, Milano-Torino and he had to stop racing,” Astana Qazaqstan team doctor Dag Van Elslande told Cycling News. “The team gives him enough time to come back in perfect health, therefore he adjusted his training and racing program.”

The big goal of this season for the 'Manx Missile' is of course the Tour de France later this summer as he attempts to take sole ownership of the Tour de France stage win record ahead of Eddy Merckx. With that still some distance away, Astana Qazaqstan Team are keen to impress that there is no stress just yet although surely, Cavendish would prefer to take to the Grand Depart in Florence with some more wins under his belt.