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British sprint king Mark Cavendish could pull on the Giro d’Italia race leader’s pink jersey late Saturday as his Omega-Pharma team’s sprint-train credentials face their first big Grand Tour test of the season.
Cavendish, arguably cycling’s most successful sprinter, has since 2008 won a total of 10 stages on the three-week Italian race which opens with a fairly flat 130km stage around Naples.
It is the first time in 10 years the race opens with a road stage.
The last time a stage of the race finished in Naples was in 1996 when former sprint star Mario Cipollini dominated a bunch finish.
But the Italian’s feat, especially in light of a damning account of his links to Spanish blood doping doctor Eufemiano Fuentes in Gazzetta dello Sport in February, failed to impress Isle of Man rider Cavendish.
“For sure, I’d like to win the stage, but it’s irrelevant who won there before,” Cavendish told reporters.
Cavendish, however, is under the spotlight himself.
Having enjoyed the bulk of his record 23 stage successes on the Tour de France with a well-oiled HTC team (2006-2011), before a comparatively ill-fated move to Team Sky (2012), Cavendish surprised many in the sport with his move to Omega-Pharma at the end of last season.
Nevertheless, this season Cavendish has been successful. He won the opening stage of the Tour of San Luis, Argentina, for his new outfit, then won four consecutive stages of six on his way to overall victory in the Tour of Qatar.
He went on to win stage two in the Three Days of De Panne, but Omega-Pharma came up short in the finale of the Scheldeprijs, where Cavendish was aiming for a record fourth victory.
It has left some critics believing the Manxman could be winning more, and recent reports suggested Italian sprinter Alessandro Petacchi would be parachuted in to the team in time for the Tour de France.
International Cycling Union (UCI) rules ended that possibility last week as 39-year-old Petacchi is still linked with the Lampre team amid claims he is about to retire.
Cavendish, meanwhile, claims he had no concerns about his current set-up.
“We’ve won a lot – I’ve won seven races so far this year including the overall at the Tour of Qatar, so things have been going great,” Cavendish said.
“It’s been the most successful start to the year I’ve had. Maybe things didn’t go well in the end and there are things you can work on, but now it’s a different part of the season with different guys.”
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