Mark Cavendish did not contest the sprint finish in either of the opening two days of this year’s Tour de France over the weekend.

The Manxman had identified stages one and two as possible chances of adding to his 30 career wins in Le Tour, as he attempts to match the record of 34 by the legendary Eddy Merckx.

The opening stage was a pan flat affair over 189 kilometres from Noirmoutier-en-l’Ã?Â?le to Fontenay-le-Comte in the Vendée region of western France and, as expected, it resulted in a bunch sprint finish.

Unfortunately for Cav, his Dimension Data leadout train was unable to keep touch with the leading riders as the peloton raced through the tricky final few kilometres and he was not able to contest the sprint.

Colombian star Fernando Gaviria won the stage on his Tour de France debut ahead of world champion Peter Sagan and Marcel Kittel. Cav crossed the line safely in 36th place.

Sunday’s second 183km stage from Mouilleron-Saint-Germain to La Roche-sur-Yon was a very similar affair and again it culminated in a sprint finish. But there was more bad luck for Cavendish as he was caught the wrong side of a crash during the closing stages which saw several riders hit the Tarmac heading into a tricky right-hand corner.

Luckily Cav escaped unharmed but the crash meant he was again unable to participate in the sprint finish, with Sagan pipping Sonny Cabrelli to victory to claim both the leader’s yellow jersey and the green points jersey.

Monday’s stage was a team time trial in which Dimension Data finished 20th.

Today, Tuesday, should see another sprint finish at the end of a 195km trek from La Baule to Sarzeau but the race then has a couple of hilly stages in northwestern France before there are a few more chances for sprinters on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

wOMEN’S Giro d’Italia

Elsewhere in Europe, other Manx cyclists have been in the thick of the action in different races.

Anna Christian and Lizzie Holden are both currently competing in the Giro d’Italia Internazionale Femminile, one of the most high profile women’s races on the cycling calendar.

The 10-stage tour got underway on Friday with a team time trial round Verbania in the Piedmont region of northern Italy and the Manx duo helped Trek Drops finish 10th out of a field of 24.

The 120.4-kilometre second stage in Ovada was a mostly flat affair which ended in a sprint that was won by Wiggle High5’s Kirsten Wild, with Anna safely in the main bunch crossing the line on the same time in 86th place.

Unfortunately there was bad luck for Lizzie who punctured when in the leading front group but, as the gap to the peloton was not big enough, there was no team car nearby and therefore she ended up trailing in behind the peloton and crossing the line in 128th.

There was more bad luck for the 20-year-old in Sunday’s stage as she was caught up in a crash 2km from the finish which was caused by her team-mate and resulted in three of her other Trek Drops riders crashing.

But she was able to remount quickly and she finished the stage in 78th, only one minute down on the winner Jolien D’Hoore, while Christian finished in 103rd place.

Tour of Austria

The latter’s brother Mark has continued his impressive run of form with some excellent displays during the opening stages of the Tour of Austria.

Having won the king of the mountains jersey at the recent Tour of Switzerland, as well as producing a good performance in the British National Road Race Championships in Northumberland, the 27-year-old has been featuring prominently for Aqua Blue Sport in the Int. österreich-Rundfahrt.

The Commonwealth Games medalist was an excellent eighth place at the end of the opening stage in Feldkirch in the west of the country, finishing as the highest placed Briton - ahead of the likes of last year’s British national champion Stephen Cummings - and the highest member of his team.

He then produced another good ride in the second stage to Fulpmes/Telfes when he was again the leading Briton in 35th place, finishing on the same time as his main rivals to ensure that he stayed comfortably inside the top 10 in the general classification.

Heading into Monday’s stage he was lying sixth overall, only 14 seconds behind the leader.

As a result of his strong performances so far, Aqua Blue were also topping the team standings after Sunday’s stage.