Finishing school - Mark Cavendish and the Giro d'Italia

Mark Cavendish at the Giro d'Italia in 2008
Mark Cavendish at the Giro d'Italia in 2008 (Image credit: Getty Images)

In 2022, Mark Cavendi🃏sh returns to the Giro d’Italia after a nine-year hiatus. He sets out still hoping to earn selection for QuickStep-AlphaVinyl’s Tour squad, though it would be reductive to couch Cavendish’s Giro as a mere audition for July. He has history with this race, after all.

With fifteen stage wins and two stints in the maglia rosa, Cavendish made an impact every time he lined up in Italy, but after winnin༒g the points classification in 2013, he stayed away. At first he may have reasoned that going so deep in Italy was blunting his speed in July, and sponsor pressure to race the Tour of California was surely a factor too. Later, illness and form issues would remove the race from his horizon altogether.