• Mark Cavendish did not make his Dimension Data team’s Tour de France roster this year.
• The 34-year-old Brit has struggled this season after a second bout with the Epstein Barr virus.
• He will miss the Tour for the first time in more than a decade.

Mark Cavendish will miss the Tour de France for the first time since 2007.

The 34-year-old Brit, a reliable sprinter with a host of stage victories under his belt, was left off of his Dimension Data team’s roster when its final eight-man Tour lineup came out on Tuesday.

Cavendish has won 30 stages in previous Tours de France as well as the Points Classification in 2011, for which he earned the green jersey. He has also taken 15 individual stage wins at the Giro d’Italia and three at the Vuelta a España, as well as the Points Classification in previous editions of both of those Grand Tours.

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But he’s struggled for form ever since returning to racing earlier this year after a second bout with the Epstein Barr virus, which can cause fever, fatigue, and swollen glands, and lead to the mono infection.

He has only made the podium once so far in 2019 – taking third place on Stage 3 of the Tour of Turkey in April – and only managed to finish 22nd in the British National Road Race Championships on Sunday.

Cavendish is just four Tour de France stage wins away from Eddy Merckx’s all-time high of 34. But any attempt to chip away at the Belgian great’s record will now have to wait for another year.

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Dimension Data, based here in South Africa, will bring two previous stage winners to the Tour this year: Norwegian Edvald Boasson Hagen (three wins) and 38-year-old Brit Steve Cummings (two wins). Italian sprinter Giacomo Nizzolo will also join the team, making his Tour debut at age 30.

This article originally appeared on bicycling.com.

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