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Cavendish starts in Tour of Qatar
World champion recovered from illness
Mark Cavendish has recovered from his illness and was scheduled to be at the start of the first stage of the Tour of Qatar on Sunday. He is making his debut for Team Sky in the race.
Cavendish fell ill on the flight from London to Doha, Qatar, on Friday evening and skipped training on Saturday, remaining under the supervision of the team's medical staff.
“We’re all delighted that Mark has been able to battle back from the bug he picked up coming out here and it will be a real boost to the rest of the guys to know that he’ll be starting today,” said sport directors Steven de Jongh.
“Our medical team have done a fantastic job in looking after him and Mark has followed their advice to the letter. Clearly, he’s not going to be at his best in the next few days but we’re hoping he’ll get stronger with every passing stage.
“We’ll continue to keep a very close eye on him but hopefully he’s over the worst of it now.”
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Related riders
Mark Cavendish
Key results
1st World Road Championships 2011
1st World Track Championships, Madison 2005, 2008
1st Points competition, Tour de France 2011
20 stage wins, Tour de France 2008-11
9 stage wins, Giro d’Italia, 2008-11
1st Points competition, Vuelta a España 2010
4 stages wins, Vuelta a España 2010
1st Milan-San Remo 2009
1st Scheleprijs 2007, 2008, 2011
2nd Points competition, Tour de France 2009, 2010Looking ahead to 2012
It will be hard for Mark Cavendish to top his 2011 season, winning the green jersey in the Tour de France and the rainbow stripes of World Champion – but Cavendish has big dreams, and they’re centred around July, riding the Tour de France and then the Olympic road race in London. Not that the rest of the peloton will be making it easy for him – and it will be interesting to see whether the move from HTC to Sky will affect his racing. Whatever happens, there are sure to be the usual fireworks!
Related teams
Sky Procycling
2012 UCI status: ProTeam
Sponsor: Broadcast network
Team Nationality: UK
Website: www.teamsky.comTeam Manager: David Brailsford
Directeurs sportifs: Steven De Jongh, Rod Ellingworth, Servais Knaven, Marcus Ljungqvist, Nicolas Portal, Sean Yates