Thursday 15 March 2018 09:07, UK
Mark Cavendish will compete in Saturday's Milan-Sanremo race despite fracturing a rib in a crash at Tirreno-Adriatico.
Cavendish crashed during the opening team time trial in Italy, and although he was cleared to continue racing and completed the stage he was ruled to have finished outside of the time limit.
He has since been training in Italy and rejoined his Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka teammates on Wednesday.
"After crashing in Tirreno I'm obviously not in any sort of condition to win Milan-Sanremo", said Cavendish. "But having been able to train enough through the pain over the last few days I feel like I can go in support of my teammates.
"Milan-Sanremo is a race close to my heart and it's a particular style of race that reminding my body of the rhythm of it this year, will help me to compete for the win in future years."
Also included in the team's line-up are Mark Renshaw, Edvald Boasson Hagen, Scott Thwaites, Julien Vermote, Jay Thomson and Stephen Cummings.
"As a team we're really excited ahead of one of the sport's iconic races", said Sports Director Roger Hammond. "It's great to have Mark (Cavendish) return to an event that's obviously very special to him.
"He's had a run of bad luck, crashing in both Abu Dhabi and Tirreno-Adriatico, but despite fracturing a rib, and weather permitting, has managed to train."
