The Manxman delivered an incredible all-action performance to win the second national road title of his career, setting up the victory with an early attack before prevailing in a three-up sprint in the 201km race from Dumfries to Galloway.
With doubt still surrounding his participation in this year’s Tour, Cavendish gave himself his best possible chance of being on the start line in Copenhagen in five days time with one of his best rides in recent years.
Despite Cavendish winning four stages at the 2021 Tour de France to equal Eddy Merckx’s record of 34, QuickStep has indicated they will name Fabio Jakobsen as their sprinter for this year’s race instead.
However, the performance from Cavendish and his emotional post-race comments are sure to give the Belgian-based team and its general manager Patrick Lefevre plenty to think about.
"I feel so much better than last year and you know what happened last year... I won four stages at the Tour de France and the green jersey," he said.
"It's unlikely I'll go to the Tour de France so I might as well use it today and at least show that the reason I'm not going to the Tour is not because I've got bad form."
While acknowledging his Tour participation as "unlikely", Cavendish nevertheless explained that it hadn't been definitively ruled out, and things are still up in the air.
"I haven't had a call from the team one way or the other. I don't know. Normally you get a call to say you're going or not going but this time and I haven't had anything, so I'm trying to stay optimistic with that. But we'll see," he said.
As if his performance on the roads of Scotland hadn't been clear enough, he left no doubt about how he sees both his form and what he could offer at the Tour.
"You can see my condition, that I'm good enough to do the Tour. I know if I went, I'd win a stage," he said.
"Can you imagine winning a 35th Tour de France stage in the British champion's jersey? It'd be really beautiful. Those photos would be there forever."
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