No Cavendish for Quick Step

Mark Cavendish will not ride for Omega Pharma-Quick Step in 2012. One of the team owners has confirmed that no agreement between the Belgian team and the World champion has been reached, according to the Gazet van Antwerpen.

“Cavendish will not ride for us,” said Bessel Kok, a Dutch businessman who along with Zdenek Bakala owns 80 percent of Quick Step. “There have been discussions about his future, but both parties mutually agreed not to sign the contract.”

Earlier this month, the GVA reported that Cavendish might join the Belgian team. It was long expected that the British sprinter would ride for Team Sky, but the newspaper quoted a Sky employee as saying the team was no longer so sure. Team principal Dave Brailsford confirmed last week that there was only an oral agreement with Cavendish and called the situation “complicated.”

In Sunday's Paris-Tours, the sprinter as well as his HTC-Highroad team seemed unfocused. A team staff member told L'Equipe that "he is too busy with his contract negociations with Sky, he really has other things on his mind at the moment [than the race - ed.]."