Mark Cavendish (Astana-Qazaqstan) has opted to miss the first part of the Belgian Classics and has still to confirm when he will return to racing after a nasty cold disrupted his training.
The Manxman and his leadout man Michael Morkov failed to finish inside the time limit on the short but mountainous fifth stage of Tirreno-Adriatico and then Cavendish revealed he was starting to feel ill before starting Milano-Torino. He did not finish the Italian one-day race and came down with a cold.
