Volta a Catalunya leading to his selection for the Tour de France. He crashed in stages one and two and abandoned the race at stage eight as it reached the Alps. Although he had taken two top-ten placings he was unhappy not to have had a top-five placing. His début season continued with ten stage wins, one behind Alessandro Petacchi's record eleven for a début season. Cavendish took his eleventh win in early October—the Circuit Franco-Belge—to equal Petacchi's record. Among the wins were three in UCI ProTour events—two in the Volta a Catalunya and one in the Eneco Tour. 2008 In 2008, Cavendish returned to the track for the world championships in Manchester. Cavendish was brought in to partner Bradley Wiggins in the madison, as Hayles failed a routine blood test, and was subsequently banned. At around halfway through the race they appeared to be out of contention, with their closest rivals all gaining a lap. With thirty-five laps left to race, however, Wiggins launched an attack which helped them reach the field ten laps later. They took the lead due to the superior points they had collected in the sprints. They held on to win the gold medal, finishing with nineteen points, ahead of Germany on thirteen. On the road, Cavendish won his first stages of a Grand Tour with two victories in the Giro d'Italia and four stages in the Tour de France, the first of which was on stage five. He won also stages eight, twelve and thirteen. After stage fourteen, Cavendish abandoned the Tour to concentrate on the Olympics in Beijing. He paired with Wiggins in the madison, and as the reigning world champions, they were favourites for the gold medal but finished ninth. Cavendish felt Wiggins had not performed to the best of his ability in the madison. The rest of his season was successful, with a total of eleven further race wins, including three each at the Tour of Ireland and the Tour of Missouri where he won his only points classification of the season. At the Tour de Romandie, he won the opening time trial, beating compatriot Wiggins and emphasising his short-distance time-trial abilities. 2009 Cavendish's 2009 season began at the Tour of Qatar, where he renewed his rivalry with 's Tom Boonen. Boonen won the race and one stage, though Cavendish took two stages. He also won two stages at the Tour