Mark Cavendish: "There's some people who want Fabio to go to the Tour, so I don't go"

Mark Cavendish is set to take to the start of the Giro d'Italia this week, but nevertheless the Briton's mind is on the Tour de France where he is still hoping to be at this summer, in order to try and beat the stage-win record of Eddy Merckx.

In an interview with Eurosport UK, Cavendish has affirmed that "there's some people who want Fabio [Jakobsen] to go to the Tour, so I don't go to the Tour, not fore Fabio to go and win in the Tour; for sure there is." He went on to clear that this is a small group of people: "Don't get me wrong, like we've talked about before it's a very small demographic, it's that small demographic that does the biggest thing in your shoulder."

"Whoever goes... Every of the 30 riders in our team will be glued, screaming to the TV, you can guarantee that," he added. At the time being Fabio Jakobsen is on the shortlist for the Tour, having returned to cycling last year to become one of the most dominant sprinters in the peloton. This year the Dutchman has shown no signs of stopping, with six wins to his name early on in the season where he displayed his dominance. Part of that success is due to the Belgian team's lead-out specialization, in which Jakobsen is likely to have the support of Michael Morkov and Florian Sénéchal as main support for the sprints.

Struggling to explain his line of thought, Cavendish added that "somebody else's narrative that isn't there (doesn't exist), it pisses me off in a way, and I rather not talk about it," he concluded. With the support of Michael Morkov, alongside Davide Ballerini and Bert van Lerberghe, Cavendish will have a luxury lead-out in Italy this month where he will be a favourite for several stages.