A few days ago, British Cycling head Shayne Sutton explained that Mark Cavenish will have to leave the Tour de France before the end in order to be ready for the Olympic Games. But Dimension Data's Brian Smith says that his British rider can ride the Tour de France and be competitive some days later on the track in Rio de Janeiro.

"We have to set down with British Cycling because they are saying that he’ll have to stop the Tour de France [early]. The Tour de France is a huge event for Dimension Data and Deloitte. We’ll look at that and look at what’s best for Cav. I think he can do both and he thinks he can do both", Smith explained to CyclingWeekly. "It’s obviously that British Cycling is looking at what’s best for them but I think that we have to take everything else into consideration and look at the Tour de France. Everyone wants to win on the Champs-Élysées."

"We’ll take that decision as it comes, but I don’t want to think about it now because anything can happen between now and then. If he feels good and he want’s to go to Paris, then we’ll look at it. If he thinks that he is on his limits and he wants to freshen up for the Olympics, then we’ll look at it."

During the World Championships, Sutton told that Cavendish will have to leave the French three-week race to win a medal in Brzsil. "That’s Shane’s opinion, and we take his opinion into consideration," Smith added. "I have a lot of respect for Shane and we are not saying 100 per cent now that Cav will stop after two weeks. We haven’t had that conversation yet. We just have to watch every race he rides. I doubt he’ll ride the Giro d’Italia, which is race he rode on in the past. We just have to keep it as light as possible."

At the Worlds, Cavendish placed sixth in omnium on Saturday and won the Madison with Bradley Wiggins on Sunday.