As the riders in the Tour de France peloton slalomed their way through the storm-lashed Italian Alps yesterday, Mark Cavendish was preparing to return to the Isle of Man for a week's rest before turning his attention to the Beijing Olympics.

“We had a plan,” Cavendish, who won the fifth, eighth, twelfth and thirteenth stages of this year's Tour, said of his decision to withdraw from the race, exactly one month before his Olympic rendezvous. “I wanted to see how far I could do in the Tour de France. We've done that, so it's perfect. Now I'll go home and begin to prepare for the Olympics.” Citing fatigue, Cavendish, who also won twice during this year's Giro d'Italia, opted not to start yesterday's first Alpine stage from Embrun to Prato Nevoso.

“I've done enough here with four stages,” Cavendish, who will compete in the Olympic Madison race on August 19, said. “I'm a bit tired now. I've ridden one Grand Tour at the Giro d'Italia. Here I rode hard through the Pyrenees and was able to get a couple more results.” The first suggestion that the 23-year-old might fail to make it to Paris came in Saturday's hot and fast stage from Nîmes to Digne-les-Bains, won by Oscar Freire, of Spain. While rival sprinters such as Thor Hushovd, Erik Zabel and the Spaniard rode on to contest the finish, the Briton fell back on the climb of the Col de l'Orme and was unable to make up the lost ground.

“We spoke to him on Saturday night to see how he felt,” Bob Stapleton, his Columbia team manager, said. “He was very fatigued. It was very difficult for him to get over the Alps. Why take any physical risks and put a workload on his body?” Despite his four stage wins, Cavendish's relative inexperience as a climber left him placed 140th overall in the Tour as the Alps loomed large. In the points competition, signified by the green jersey, he was slipping off the pace set by Freire, the classification leader.

“Maybe if the green jersey was still in contention I'd have carried on, but I was 60 points behind,” Cavendish said. “It's better to go home and try and recover. I'll take a week's rest, then I'll start to concentrate on the Olympics.” Rod Ellingworth, Cavendish's coach at British Cycling, supported the Manx rider's decision. “It was totally his call to stop,” Ellingworth said. “He could have finished and pushed on because he's got really good form but he wants to keep it. I think his gut feeling is right.

“He's a little more fatigued than he should have been. On the stage in the Pyrenees to Hautacam, he spent the whole day out on his own after he crashed. He didn't want to pull out of the Tour and we talked about how he would feel watching the sprinters on the Champs Elysées, knowing he could have been there, but there are other things to consider like being Olympic champion. He can't get any fitter. It's about maintaining what he's got and trying to get an edge on his track form between now and Beijing.”

In yesterday's stage, Cadel Evans, of Australia, lost the race lead after he came under sustained attack from Frank and Andy Schleck, the brothers from Luxembourg, and Carlos Sastre, from Spain, all of whom ride for Team CSC. Frank Schleck now leads by seven seconds from Bernhard Kohl, the climber from Austria, with Evans in third place. Oscar Pereiro, of Spain, was airlifted to hospital after a high-speed crash on the descent of the Col d'Agnel. Pereiro broke his shoulder and thigh when he hit a barrier and fell onto the road below the pass.

Leonardo Piepoli, the winner of the stage to Hautacam, is reported to have confessed to alleged doping by the Spanish media, and Barloworld has announced its decision to withdraw sponsorship after the positive test for EPO of Moises Duenas last week, citing its “zero tolerance” towards doping.