Ireland's Sam Bennett won't defend his Tour de France green jersey after being ruled out of the event through injury.
Bennett, 30, enjoyed an outstanding Tour last year, claiming two stages wins – his first in the race – before unexpectedly dethroning Peter Sagan in the points classification, a competition the Slovakian has dominated since 2012.
However, the same injury which saw him ruled out of the Belgium Tour will now bar him from the biggest race of all.
“Needless to say, I’m very disappointed to not be able to defend my green jersey at this year’s Tour de France,” Bennett said.
“I had a very minor incident during training a couple of weeks ago, which affected my knee. While the injury I sustained is very short-term, it impacted my training for the biggest bike race in the world all too much and left me without enough time to be race fit.”
Meanwhile, Mark Cavendish will return to the Tour de France for the first time since 2018 after being named in Deceuninck-QuickStep’s eight-man squad for the race which begins on Saturday.
The Manxman, whose 30 Tour stage wins are second only to Eddy Merckx, was included with Irishman Sam Bennett ruled out through injury, unable to defend the green jersey that he won in last year’s race.
Cavendish, 36, has enjoyed a resurgence in form this year, winning four stages of the Tour of Turkey in April and the final stage of the Belgium Tour earlier this month.