Mark Cavendish is 'really close to winning' says Deceuninck - Quick-Step sports director
The Manxman will be leading the team at the upcoming Tour of Turkey which also sees a return to racing for Fabio Jakobsen
Mark Cavendish looks to be getting closer to being back to his old self again after a series of solid results in recent races, as he continues his search for a win.
Cavendish (Deceuninck - Quick-Step) has been showing some excellent form in recent weeks, taking two second places at Coppi e Bartali, including a stint in the leader's jersey, while earlier this week he claimed third place at Scheldeprijs - a race he has won three times in his illustrious career - behind Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Fenix) and team-mate Sam Bennett.
The Manxman also managed to beat the likes of European champion Giacomo Nizzolo (Qhubeka-Assos) and Giro d'Italia points jersey winner Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe) at the Belgian semi-Classic.
All this has earned Cavendish the chance to lead the team at the upcoming Tour of Turkey, where his team hopes he'll claim that elusive win.
Team sports director, Wilfried Peeters spoke to Het Laastte Nieuws after Scheldeprijs: "We added Mark to the [Scheldeprijs] selection at the last minute. We can't blame him – he was in the first group, after all, and he did exactly what we told him to do.
"That pleasantly surprised us. The disappointment [at not winning] would be a lot bigger if we hadn't won anything yet this season. The fact is that we have to learn from it.
"But I want to end on a positive note. Cav is now really close to winning. In the Tour of Turkey? Of course, it will depend on little things, but yes it's possible."
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The 35-year-old has managed seven stage wins in Turkey between the years 2014 and 2015. He will be hoping he can add to that as he comes up against a relatively weakened sprint field. Apart from Scheldeprijs winner Philipsen there are only one or two other obvious names that could challenge.
Cavendish will be joined by former Dutch champion, Fabio Jakobsen, who is making his first appearance since his horrific crash with Dylan Groenewegen (Jumbo-Visma) at the Tour of Poland in 2020 where he suffered brain trauma and serious injuries to his face that required reconstructive surgery.
As well as Jakobsen, the British rider be joined by fastman Álvaro Hodeg, lead out man Shane Archbald, Iljo Keisse and Stijn Steels. Interestingly the team have not selected the full seven riders for the 2.Pro race.
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Hi, I'm one of Cycling Weekly's content writers for the web team responsible for writing stories on racing, tech, updating evergreen pages as well as the weekly email newsletter. Proud Yorkshireman from the UK's answer to Flanders, Calderdale, go check out the cobbled climbs!
I started watching cycling back in 2010, before all the hype around London 2012 and Bradley Wiggins at the Tour de France. In fact, it was Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck's battle in the fog up the Tourmalet on stage 17 of the Tour de France.
It took me a few more years to get into the journalism side of things, but I had a good idea I wanted to get into cycling journalism by the end of year nine at school and started doing voluntary work soon after. This got me a chance to go to the London Six Days, Tour de Yorkshire and the Tour of Britain to name a few before eventually joining Eurosport's online team while I was at uni, where I studied journalism. Eurosport gave me the opportunity to work at the world championships in Harrogate back in the awful weather.
After various bar jobs, I managed to get my way into Cycling Weekly in late February of 2020 where I mostly write about racing and everything around that as it's what I specialise in but don't be surprised to see my name on other news stories.
When not writing stories for the site, I don't really switch off my cycling side as I watch every race that is televised as well as being a rider myself and a regular user of the game Pro Cycling Manager. Maybe too regular.
My bike is a well used Specialized Tarmac SL4 when out on my local roads back in West Yorkshire as well as in northern Hampshire with the hills and mountains being my preferred terrain.
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