following on from the tour de france, cavendish won the sparkassen giro bochum and took part in the tour of ireland, winning stage two. on 7 september he recorded the 50th win of his road racing career in a sprint finish in the opening stage of the tour of missouri. before the race he confirmed he will remain with team columbia – htc in 2010, ending speculation linking him with a move to newly created british team, team sky. cavendish retained the leader's jersey by sprinting to victory on stage two but finished fifth on stage three, losing the overall lead to thor hushovd, and was forced to withdraw from the race before stage four due to a lung infection. although selected for the british team for the men's road race at the 2009 uci road world championships, his illness prevented him from taking part.