Mark Cavendish, a 29-year old professional road or track racing cyclist, is not likely to race for Great Britain at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics. His Olympic dream is nearly over.
The road sprinter from the Isle of Man, is widely considered to be the fasted road cyclist in the world and is nicknamed "Manx Missile". He competed in the road race at the 2012 London Olympics, together with the other British cyclist and finished 29th, only forty seconds behind the winner!
Cavendish is currently riding with Belgian cycling ProTeam- Etixx - Quick Step, and mainly competes in the road races.
His three-year contract with Etixx, which he signed in October 2012, will expire in less than 12 months. In 2013 and 2014, while with Etixx, he competed in major road races such as the Tour de San Luis in Argentina, the Giro d'Italia, the Tour de France, the Tour of Britain and other major international road races.
During the next 12 months, his priory will be competing in the road races for his ProTeam; he is staring with the Tour de San Luis later in January, followed by the Milan-San Remo one-day classic in March, the Giro d'Italia in May, and culminating with the Tour de France in July. Unfortunately, he has given up the idea of competing in the road race in the 2016 Olympics as he believes that he is not well suited for the road race course in Rio; some parts of the race course have a very steep gradient and there is a 2km cobblestone section of the road.
Cavendish is a sprinter after all!
What about the track cycling in the Barra velodrome, which hosted the track cycling events of the 2007 Pan American Games, and looks amazing?
It seems that his busy road racing schedule in 2015, to which he has been committed, would not allow Cavendish to prepare well for the track cycling at the Olympics.
The road cycling is known to have a lasting negative effect on the track cyclists and Cavendish feels that his endurance will be tested and it would be nearly impossible to compete in the Olympics track events, unless some dramatic turns take place.
However, Cav is yet to make his final decision. We hope he decides to go for the Barra velodrome.
