British sprinter Mark Cavendish today leapt to the defence of modern-day cycling and sought to distance it from the doping era of Lance Armstrong’s pomp.
The 27-year-old, with 23 Tour de France stage wins to his name, has long held an outspoken view of the doping indiscretions of the past.
And today he took to Twitter to vent his frustration at the manner in which he felt cycling was now being unfairly tarnished.
Cavendish, who earlier this week made his move from Team Sky to Omega Pharma-Quickstep for the 2013 season, wrote: “With doping, I’m saddened that modern cycling’s seen as a culprit, not a casualty of individuals. Don’t paint everyone with the same brush.”
It is Cavendish’s first response since the publication of the United States Anti-Doping Agency’s 1,000-page dossier into systemic doping by Armstrong and his former US Postal Service team-mates.
