Trying to focus more in Tour de France, Mark Cavendish(Omega Pharma-Quick Step) could miss the Giro next year, OPQS team manager Patrick Lefevere told Cyclingnews.

2014 Tour de France will start in England, which both Cavendish and Lefevere feel very delighted. "I’m sure that his season will be totally focused on the Tour de France,” Lefevere said.

This season Cavendish took part in the Italian Grand Tour, collecting 5 stages and the point jersey in process. He was also very active in spring races, winning the Tour of Qatar and finish 9th in Milan-San Remo. However, the manx missile was not as strong as predicted in Tour de France, winning only 2 stages. Some would point the disappointing result to lack of sprint train support, while Lefevere thought the Manx rider is not likely to maintain a strong form all the way from spring to the Tour. As a result, some rest in between would be needed for Cavendish. While the 2014 Giro will also start in the United Kingdom, Cavendish might still choose to skip the race.  "Actually I think he may rest from half-way through April to half-way through May and then build up to the Tour and not do the Giro.”Lefevere commented.

This year's Giro runner-up Uran is regarded a future Tour the France contender by many, but the team may choose to not let him ride it next year.“For Rigoberto we were also speaking about a possible combination of the Giro and Vuelta, too, but we will decide for sure in the first training camp in December.” Lefevere said. He didn't completely rule out the possibility that the Colombian will ride the Tour, though.

As the OPQS team has a lot of talent everywhere, like Uran, all-arounder Michal Kwiatkowski, as well as cobbled specialist Tom Boonen, it's naturally a challenging job to satisfy all the riders with an appropriate race plan and opportunities to win the race. Sylvain Chavanel, for example, felt he lost a lot of chances during the five years in OPQS team. "I totally disagree with that,” Lefevere argued, "If he could win a big race it could have been in our team". As Chavanel will join IAM Cycling team next season, the frenchman will be sole leader in cobbled classics next year. "I wish him the best of luck with that. It’s been hard for us to go our separate ways because he’s not just a great rider, he’s a great person."