OPQS has officially announced Mark Cavendish's schedule for the next several weeks. Cavendish will ride in the Tour du Poitou Charentes (26th-29th August) followed by the Tour of Britain (7th-14th September).
"Mark has proven that he's worked very hard since his crash at the Tour de France," explains Rolf Aldag. "Just six weeks after his injury, he took part in the Tour de l'Ain and worked as an important supporting rider to his teammates, even though obviously he is understandably not yet back to 100% condition. We really appreciated Mark's behaviour and his desire to get back into racing as soon as possible. Now the Team believe that Mark needs a further intermediate step, which will be the Poitou Charents, in order get some more competition kilometers into his legs and continue his progress of gradual re-entry into competition. After the short French stage race, the plan is for Mark to line up for the start of the Tour of Britain with the aim of definitively rediscovering his race feeling by competing and trying to get good results."
"After the injury both myself and the Team set a goal to get slowly back into a race environment at the Tour de l'Ain which I've now done." Cavendish said, "It was not an easy race for me because naturally my shoulder was still bothering me a little as it continues to get stronger each day. Now the next step is another shorter stage race at Poitou Charents. We will continue to monitor my condition week by week; as things stand it's impossible to know how I'll be feeling each week considering the severity of the injury and the accelerated recovery time. One thing is for sure, I would like to be at the start for the Tour of Britain for another chance to race in front of British fans again this year which holds lots of fond memories. My goal there will be to do the best I possibly can depending on the condition I'm in."