You will not find the jersey of the champion of France on the roads of the Tour de France 2021 which will leave Brest on Saturday June 26. Sacred this Sunday in Épinal, Rémy Cavagna is not part of the selection of the Deceuninck Quick-Step team unveiled this Monday at the beginning of the afternoon. The Auvergnat is not the only notable absent from the Belgian formation. Wounded in the knee, the Irishman Sam Bennett is not invited either to the big parade of July. This is not nothing: the Deceunincks are depriving themselves of a national champion and the winner of the green jersey for the 2020 edition.
To replace Bennett, the Deceuninck Quick-Step are reminiscent of an old acquaintance of the Tour de France, a rider who could break one of King Eddy Merckx’s records. This runner’s name is Mark Cavendish. The Briton has already won 30 stages in the Tour de France, just four fewer than Merckx. He’s unlikely to break the Belgian’s record this year, but he can come close. Why not during the first week? Especially since the Tour will pass through Châteauroux, where the rider from the Isle of Mann, then unknown, won his very first stage in 2008. His last bouquet on the roads of the Grande Boucle dates back to 2016.
A stage winner in the Tour of Turkey in the spring, Cavendish has become a competitive rider again. But at Deceuninck, he will obviously not be the leader for three weeks, since the world champion Julian Alaphilippe will play this role. On the Tour, the Belgian team will therefore have the following roster: Julian Alaphilippe, Kasper Asgreen, Davide Ballerini, Mattia Cattaneo, Mark Cavendish, Tim Declercq, Dries Devenyns, Michael Mørkøv.
