Tour de Yorkshire: Track goal may see Mark Cavendish swerve Yorkshire

Dimension data for Qhubeka have become the third world tour team to confirm their participation in this year's Tour de Yorkshire, but there remains uncertainty over whether their leading light will contest the race.
Mark Cavendish, in his old Etixx-QuickStep days is to divide his time between the track and road this seasonMark Cavendish, in his old Etixx-QuickStep days is to divide his time between the track and road this season
Mark Cavendish, in his old Etixx-QuickStep days is to divide his time between the track and road this season

Mark Cavendish, the former world road race champion and multiple stage winner at the Tour de France, was the African team’s marquee signing in the winter as they took the step up to the top echelon of world cycling.

However, Cavendish wants to have an Olympic swansong on the track this summer in Rio, and one of the reasons he left Etixx QuickStep last year for the emerging team was because Dimension Data were more accommodating of his desire to split his commitments between road and track in 2016.

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The Tour de Yorkshire runs from Beverley on Friday, April 29, all the way through to Scarborough on Sunday, May 1, but those dates clash with a British Cycling track training camp in the United States, scheduled for the first week in May. If Cavendish is serious about his ambitions on the boards – and this week’s world track championships will give a good indication of his medal prospects – then he is likely to head across the pond to further that goal.

“If I can’t get a result at the worlds (this week) I can’t at the Olympics so I have a lot to focus on,” said Cavendish who rides in the omnium and madison.

“I just want to win an Olympic medal. If I had won one already I don’t know if I would be here, and I probably wouldn’t be putting so much into it. The medal is the only thing that is missing from me as a bike rider.”

Even without Cavendish, Dimension Data could still bring a strong team to the Broad Acres, with Edvald Boasson Hagen, Tyler Farrar, Igor Anton and Steve Cummings among their number.Team Sky, for whom Rotherham’s Ben Swift will ride, and BMC Racing have already committed to the race with two more world tour teams still to confirm their participation.