Mark Cavendish out of road world championships

LONDON - Britain's Mark Cavendish, who won six stages of this year's Tour de France, has pulled out of the road world championships, British Cycling said on Wednesday.

Cavendish, who withdrew from the Tour of Missouri earlier this month with a lung infection, will now concentrate on the rest of the season, a British Cycling spokesman said.

Ian Stannard will replace Cavendish in the nine-man team for this Sunday's elite men's race in Switzerland.

British Cycling also confirmed that 21-year-old Jonathan Bellis, who was in the provisional list for the world championships, is stable in hospital in Florence after being placed in a coma following a bad training crash at the weekend.