Omega Pharma-Quick Step manager Patrick Lefevere has expressed his dissatisfaction with Mark Cavendish's plans to ride on the track this winter, claiming that he pays his star rider to perform on the road. Ghent Six organizer Patrick Sercu reveals that the team boss had expected more from his British sprinter in his first year with the team.

During his first year with Omega Pharma-Quick Step, Mark Cavendish has often repeated how happy he is in his new surroundings and only a small discussion about the level of his lead-out train after the Sceldeprijs has been the only friction between the two parties.

Those positive vibrations have, however, been slightly changed in recent days. First it emerged that Cavendish has been critical of the level of support he has received from sports director Wilfried Peeters and now team manager Patrick Lefevere expresses is dissatisfaction with his star's track ambitions.

Cavendish has made it clear that he would like to return to the track at the 2016 Olympics in Rio after he failed to win a medal in the madison in Beijing in 2008. He took part in the International Belgian Open in Ghent in September in order to score the qualifying points necessary to compete in this season’s UCI Track World Cup and was rumoured to be riding the Gent Six alongside his trade teammate and six-day star Iljo Keisse.

However, Lefevere is in no way supportive of those plans.

“We pay him to perform well on the road and he must concentrate fully on that,” he told Het Nieuwsblad. “Two riders crashed out on the first night of the Ghent Six. What if Mark had been one of them? What’s more, racing on the track makes preparing for next season more complex. I can tolerate the track with Keisse and [Niki] Terpstra, but not with Cavendish. You can never say never, but this year it didn’t happen and it won’t happen next year either.”

While one of the reasons for his dissatisfaction is sporting, there is also a commercial side. If Cavendish raced for Great Britain at the Worlds or the Olympics, he would not be allowed to ride on a Specialized bike.

“Of course, I’d rather not see Mark riding on a black bike,” Lefevere said. “As long as we pay Mark, I don’t want him on the track. He has enough time to do it with another team.”

Cavendish joined Omega Pharma-Quick Step after a less successful stint at Sky and win 19 races in his first year with the team. While he had a successful Giro with 5 stage wins and the victory in the points competition, the outcome of his Tour de France campaign was his most meagre since his debut in 2007. With Marcel Kittel emerging as the race's fastest sprinter, Cavendish only won two stages.

Apparently, those results didn't live up to Lefevere's expectations. Ghent Six organizer Patrick Sercu tells that the dissatisfaction with Cavendish's performances was one of the reasons for him not riding the track event.

“Cavendish wanted to ride in the Ghent Six this year. Money wasn’t the stumbling block, but the consent of his team, which he didn’t have,” he told Het Nieuwsblad. “I called Lefevere and he said that he expected better performances from Cavendish last season.”

Cavendish is a former world champion on the track but still lacks an Olympic medal on his palmares.