British Cycling has today confirmed that Mark Cavendish has been advised by his medical team to withdraw from the Glasgow 2018 European Championships.

Cavendish, the most successful sprinter in Tour de France history and former world champion on both the road and track, has worked tirelessly over recent months to recover from a challenging period of both illness and injury in order to compete at a number of key season races.

Subsequently on the back of such an intensive period and to aid his recovery, his medical team felt it would be beneficial for him to withdraw from the race in Glasgow.

Cavendish will be replaced by Mark Christian as part of the Great Britain Cycling Team in the men’s road race, which is due to take place on Sunday.

Performance Director Stephen Park, said “Obviously, this is disappointing for Mark, the team and his fans but it’s the right decision. Mark’s pride and passion for representing his country is always apparent and we know how much he was looking forward to the race.

“I’d like to thank Mark Christian for stepping in to the team at short notice, and I’m looking forward to seeing our strong squad take on the men’s road race this Sunday.”

On his withdrawal, Cavendish said, “It’s incredibly disappointing to have to withdraw from the Great Britain Cycling Team competing in Glasgow. Being selected to compete for my country is a huge honour and I had been looking forward to racing with the team.

However, given what’s been a challenging few months in terms of aiming to sufficiently recover from some unfortunate injuries in time to compete I’ve been advised that at this stage the best thing is for me to withdraw from Sunday’s race.

I wish the entire team all the very best for the race and I’ll be cheering on with the rest of the country”.