Mark Cavendish is ‘as fast as ever’, Rod Ellingworth
Mark Cavendish noted earlier that he might not be able to give his best during the Tour de France mainly because he wants to save his strengths for the London Olympics.
The cyclist is having a glorious 2012 season with numerous victories in his bag during the first half of the year.
He bagged two stages at the Tour of Qatar, one stage at the Tirreno-Adriatico, three stages at the Giro d’Italia 2012.
The Manx professional cyclist secured the first overall victory of his professional career at the ZLM Toer and restricted Lars Boom of Team Rabobank and Jurgen Roelandts of Team Lotto-Belisol for the second and the third positions respectively.
Mark’s coach, Rod Ellingworth has noted that the reigning World Champion will be seen in the best of his forms at the Tour de France and will be “as fast as ever”.
He cited that, “He's not lost any speed. The only way we can measure that is in terms of watts - and we can see from the numbers that he's there or thereabouts".
Rod explained that Cavendish had intense ten-day training in Italy right after the Giro d’Italia which helped him with an overall victory at the ZLM Tour.
The 27-year-old will be accompanied by the strong Team Sky line-up under the strong leadership of Bradley Wiggins.
The cyclist wins the points classifications during the previous edition of the Tour and is a definite favourite for this year’s race.
Cavendish has noted that he will not go for the green jersey this year and an overall victory at the Dutch race has given a significant boost in his confidence.
"People think that Mark's just saying he's happy, but even in private, he keeps saying to us that we'd be mad not to go for the yellow jersey with Brad,” Ellingworth voiced.
“He says that now's the time. Of course he's a bit concerned about not doing as well as in previous years, and of course it's a change for him not to be at the centre of attention”.
“but he's right behind what we're trying to do with Brad," he concluded.
Final Team Omega Pharma-Quick Step for the Tour de France include, Sylvain Chavanel (Fra), Kevin De Weert (Bel), Dries Devenyns (Bel), Bert Grabsch (Ger), Levi Leipheimer (USA), Tony Martin (Ger), Jérôme Pineau (Fra), Stijn Vandenbergh (Bel) and Peter Velits
(Svk).
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