Mark Cavendish’s impressive stage 2 victory at the UAE Tour has boosted his chances of riding the 2022 Tour de France with QuickStep-AlphaVinyl team manager Patrick Lefevere opening the door to the Manxman’s presence by revealing the team’s best sprinter will secure the spot in the eight-rider team for July.
In recent weeks, Fabio Jakobsen seemed to have got his wheel ahead of Cavendish in the fight for the single sprinter’s spot in the team. He reiterated that he is on the long list of 14 riders for the Tour de France, with Cavendish pencilled in to ride the Giro d’Italia, but admitted he is not the only sprinter on the long list.
Cavendish won four stages and the green jersey in the 2021 Tour de France but Jakobsen appeared to be favoured for the Tour after making a successful comeback from his Tour de Pologne crash and severe facial injuries. Both have shown they are on form winning early-season sprints, and Lefevere seemed happy to stoke the flames of an internal team rivalry to be receptive to Cavendish possibly securing a Tour de France spot. Last year, Cavendish won after a late call-up to replace Sam Bennett, who had a knee problem and had already decided to return to Bora-Hansgrohe for 2022.
"I know that Fabio Jakobsen said at the media day in Calpe at the beginning of January that he is normal going (to the Tour de France), but I have a long list," Lefevere told Nieuwsblad after watching Cavendish win on the Abu Dhabi breakwater in person.
“I'm not (popular French astrologer) Madame Soleil. So much can still happen, look what happened last year…
“The best one will go to the Tour and then they have to finish it off against all the other sprinters such as Caleb Ewan, Kristoff, Coquard and you name it. I'm especially happy that my two sprinters are on the march. Cavendish is already on the list of the Giro. Then we'll see, huh. Let's start another part of the season this weekend.”
Lefevere explained he will return to Belgium for this weekend’s Opening Weekend of racing, expecting his riders to be in the thick of the action in both Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and then Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne.
Jakobsen will be part of the QuickStep-AlphaVinyl roster and will no doubt look to respond to Cavendish’s success at the UAE Tour. The Dutchman has already won four sprints, including two at last week’s Volta ao Algarve, where teammate Remco Evenepoel won overall and helped him with the lead outs.
“The snacks are done, It is about time to start on the starter,” Lefevere said of his team’s 10 victories in the early-season races.
The 2022 season will step up a level with Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, with Strade Bianche, Paris-Nice, Tirreno-Adriatico, Milan-San Remo and then the cobbled Classics quickly following.
Lefevere has been critical of how contract negotiations dragged on with Cavendish during the final months of 2022. But he praised the 36-year-old Manxman for the way he navigated the high-speed and hectic sprint in Abu Dhabi and then held a late surge by Jasper Philipsen of Alpecin-Fenix.
“It was a mighty sprint. Cav's experience and strength surpassed Jasper Philipsen,” Lefevered said.
“On Sunday it was a tailwind sprint and he was more stressed there. This was much more about fighting and it was also about the power he got from his little legs. He also went at the ideal moment, just around the corner. Everyone thinks it's normal for Cavendish to win, but it's not always that normal."
