Former champion Mark Cavendish to miss cycling worlds

LONDON (AP) British sprint specialist Mark Cavendish will miss next week's cycling world championships in Richmond, Virginia, after failing to recover from a shoulder injury.

Cavendish, who won the road race world title in 2011, injured his left shoulder when he crashed during stage six of the Tour of Britain on Sept. 11.

Cavendish tweeted Friday that he was ''Absolutely devastated to have to pull out of the (hashtag)Richmond2015 World Champs next week due to my shoulder injury sustained last week.''

The 30-year-old sprinter was among the title contenders for the men's road event.

''It's a real blow for Mark to have to pull out of this year's race as we thought he had a great chance of being successful,'' the British team's technical director Shane Sutton said in a statement. ''Unfortunately the injury he sustained during last week's Tour of Britain is more serious than we had hoped.''

The worlds will be held in the Richmond area from Sept. 20-27.