TEAM SKY PRINCIPAL Dave Brailsford has opened the door for sprinter Mark Cavendish to leave the team if he wishes.
Bradley Wiggins became the first Team Sky rider to win the Tour de France in 2012 and the British team appear set to chase general classification victories in major races in Italy and Spain in the future.
Whereas the team’s previous ambition was to help Cavendish — renowned for his sprinting and winner of the green jersey at the 2011 Tour de France — win stages, they have now shifted their mindset. And while Brailsford sang the praises of Cavendish, who signed a three-year contract with the team in October last year, it appears that he would stand in the Manxman’s way if he wishes to join another side.
“This team will keep its GC (general classification) ambitions and I am sure that we will sit down and discuss that with Mark and see how he feels about that,” Brailsford said. ”He is a prolific British winner and on the one hand we would love to have a prolific British winner on the team.
“We will still be a GC team and if he felt, or if it was felt, that he would like a dedicated team around him, then he is quite within his rights to want to do that. We wouldn’t fall out about it, there wouldn’t be an issue about it, but we are very proud to have him on Team Sky, he is a fantastic champion and long may that continue.
“I can’t see an issue at all, there’s no problem and we will take the common-sense approach and sort it out like that.”
Cavendish has won 23 stages in cycling’s most iconic race, surpassing American Lance Armstrong and Frenchman Andre Darrigade. Eddy Merckx is the record holder with 34 stage wins on the Tour, with the 27-year-old closing in on the Belgian. Brailsford is determined to add to his side’s sensational 2012 Tour as he hopes to build the best cycling team in the world.
“If you’re going to become the best cycling team the world’s ever seen, you’ve got to win the biggest race in the world time and time again,” he said. ”I am quite driven by that: to see what it takes to be the best professional team this sport has ever seen. The components of that would be success over time.”
