No Paris-Tours for Cavendish this season

Mark Cavendish has brought his season to a close and will not ride Paris-Tours next month.

Brian Holm, Columbia-HTC's directeur sportif, confirmed to Cycling Weekly that the Isle of Man rider would not line up for the sprinters' Classic on October 11.

"It's been a long season, so there's no plans for Cavendish to do Paris-Tours this year," said Holm.

Cavendish has won 23 races this season, including the Milan-San Remo Classic, three stages of the Giro d'Italia and six stages of the Tour de France. His tally of wins surpassed his total of 17 victories in 2008.

Earlier this month he won two stages of the Tour of Missouri, the second of which was the 51st victory of his professional career.

However, having suffered from a short illness after the Tour of Ireland, he had to pull out of the Missouri race with a lung infection. Having missed a block of training, Cavendish also pulled out of the World Championship road race.

Any thoughts of pressing him into action at Paris-Tours – a race that would be well within his grasp if he were at full fitness – have been sidelined by Columbia-HTC.

Cavendish has had a long season. His first race was the Tour of Qatar, which started on February 1. Since then he's started 84 days of racing - abandoning just one race while out on the road, at the Tour of Ireland.

MARK CAVENDISH'S 2009 SCHEDULE

February

15 days of racing, 4 wins

March

9 days of racing, 2 wins

April

7 days of racing, 2 wins

May

16 days of racing, 4 wins

June

10 days of racing, 2 wins

July

21 days of racing, 6 wins

August

3 days of racing, 1 win

September

3 days of racing, 2 wins

Total: 84 days of racing, 23 wins