Paris (AFP)
British cyclist Mark Cavendish, winner of 30 stages of the Tour de France, has committed for a year with the Bahrain-Merida team, announced Friday his future training.
Cavendish, 34, ran since 2016 for the Dimension Data team.
The last victory of the Isle of Man rider dates from February 2018, a stage of the Tour of Abu Dhabi.
"Cav", which has some 146 victories on the road to his name, won the 2011 world championship. In the big rounds, he won 48 times.
With 30 stages to his credit, he is the second rider in history most often victorious on the Tour de France, behind the Belgian Eddy Merckx (34).
Last summer, he was ousted by his team and had been absent for the first time from the Tour de France since 2007, the year of his first participation.
Cavendish, who was also Olympic track medalist (silver at the 2016 Rio World Open) and the Worlds, struggled to regain form after being hit by the Epstein-Barr virus. In 2019, it resulted in the most significant third place in a stage of the Tour of Turkey.
"Having worked closely with McLaren in the past and seeing the benefits of their technology and processes, this was an opportunity I jumped on," said the rider about his future Bahrain-Merida training. is associated with the British car firm.
Cavendish also mentioned the presence of Rod Ellingworth, the new director of Bahrain-Merida (and former head of the British federation and Sky), among the reasons for his choice: "My relationship with Rod goes back a long time and he played a determining role in my development as a runner and a person. "
"Having worked with him for the last time at the Rio Olympics and Qatar World Championships in 2016, I am delighted to see that his energy and determination to succeed are greater than ever," said Ellingworth.
© 2019 AFP