Illness, what illness? British champion Mark Cavendish suffered a disrupted Classics campaign after a bout of gastroenteritis. It saw him miss the opportunity to record a record-breaking Scheldeprijs victory, having already pulled out of Gent-Wevelgem and the Three Days of De Panne.

But the Manx Missile has roared back into form with two victories from two at the Tour of Turkey – beating the likes of Elia Viviani (Cannondale) to show his rivals he is not short of race form.

Earlier in the season, a slow start to the campaign – which yielded a solitary Volta ao Algarve stage win – had led to questions over his fitness and form but Omega Pharma-Quickstep have answered those emphatically. His stage win at Tirreno-Adriatico was as comprehensive as they come – the Belgian super team’s lead-out completely obliterating their rivals. Cav lacked the legs to sprint to victory at Milan-San Remo – despite a sterling effort to stay with the leading group – but fifth place there was also encouraging.

He lacks the climbing ability of Peter Sagan but if Cavendish keeps winning races, there is no reason the green jersey can not be his in July.