Mark Cavendish not selected for the Tour de France

Mark Cavendish has been left devastated after missing out on selection for the Tour de France.

The 30-time Tour stage winner will not be on the start-line of the Tour for the first time since making his debut in 2007 after being left out of Team Dimension Data's eight-strong team.

Dimension Data head of performance Rolf Aldag wanted to select Cavendish for the Tour, but was overruled by team principal Doug Ryder, who instead made the final call on a squad which includes Britain's Steve Cummings, 38, and Dane Lars Bak, 39.

The decision has come as a shock for the 34-year-old Cavendish, who has been plagued by the Epstein-Barr virus in recent years but believed he had done all that was asked of him to prove his fitness and felt in himself that he was in the sort of form which saw him win four stages in 2016.

Cavendish raced in the British national road race on Sunday, finishing 22nd, after completing an altitude camp in Austria last week which was a specific part of his preparation for the Tour.