Cavendish cleared to race Qatar

After falling ill on the flight from London, world road race champion Mark Cavendish sat out of Team Sky’s Saturday training ride ahead of today’s Tour of Qatar. The team issued a press release this morning indicating that Cav has improved overnight and will join the team on the start line.

Team sport director Steven de Jongh said, “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.

“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.”

Cavendish himself added in a tweet several hours ago: “At the 1st startline of the season here at #TourOfQatar. Not 100% healthy, but conditions don’t seem too bad. @TeamSky‘s in good spirits.”

Whether he is up to the challenge of sprinting against his one-time leadout man Mark Renshaw (Rabobank) remains to be seen.