Lingering shoulder injury drops Mark Cavendish of Great Britain from the 2015 UCI road world championships

As Etixx-Quickstep confirmed earlier today, Great Britain’s Mark Cavendish won’t be competing at the 2015 UCI road world championships in Richmond, Virginia, the consequence of injuries he sustained during a crash at the Tour of Great Britain.

The announcement came by way of Cavendish’s Twitter account, saying on Friday morning, “Absolutely devastated to have to pull out of the #Richmond 2015 World Champs next week due to my shoulder injury sustained last week.” The 2011 world title holder collided with a parked vehicle during stage six of the event, falling hard on a shoulder injured one year earlier during the 2014 Tour de France. At the time of his Tour of Great Britain accident, initial medical reports suggested Cavendish had managed to avoid any serious debilitating injury. X-rays confirmed no damage to his shoulder joints; tests revealed no fractures. After a while, however, the pain began to affect his training.

Earlier in the week, Cavendish told reporters that he’d make a decision on Friday regarding whether or not racing in Richmond would be in his cards. “I have an X-ray which showed [his shoulder] wasn’t broken,” he said. “It wasn’t hanging off last year. But it’s worse than I feared.”

Absolutely devastated to have to pull out of the #Richmond2015 World Champs next week due to my shoulder injury sustained last week.

— Mark Cavendish (@MarkCavendish) September 18, 2015

His decision now made, the loss of Cavendish is a painful one for Etixx-Quickstep. As one of the team’s top sprinters, his anticipated strength on the sprint-friendly Virginia course was expected to lead the team’s fortunes — which, after the loss of other riders this season, the British squad could arguably use. On another level, it further whittles down the ranks of Elite British riders competing in Richmond. Earlier, 2015 Tour de France winner Chris Froome and teammate Geraint Thomas each announced their withdrawal from Virginia as well.

In that light, it’s also a loss for British cycling authorities, not just the team.

“It’s a real blow for Mark to have to pull out of this year’s race as we thought he had a great chance of being successful,” said Shane Sutton, technical director at British Cycling. “Unfortunately the injury he sustained during last week’s Tour of Britain is more serious than we had hoped.”

“We wish him well in his recovery.”