Cavendish, who won six stages in last year's Tour de France, including the final one down the Champs Elysees in Paris, has decided to concentrate instead on the World Championships in Melbourne on September 29, which is only four days before the Commonwealth Games open.

He then wants to compete in the Paris-Tours Classic, a single-day classic cycling race every October from the outskirts of Paris to the cathedral city of Tours which dates back to 1896 and which is due to be held on October 10, four days before the Commonwealth Games finish.

The 24-year-old claimed that his experience at the 2008 Olympics, when he abandoned the Tour de France early so he could prepare for Beijing only to be the only member of Britain's track team to leave the Games without a medal when him and Bradley Wiggins finished ninth, had made him more selfish.

Cavendish said: "I made the mistake of putting national pride ahead of my career in the 2008 Olympics and I'm not going to do that again.

"The World Championships is a massive, massive focus for me.

"Just thinking about pulling on the [winner's] rainbow jersey gives me goosebumps.

"I know I'll have great support from British cycling and for the next two years the road-race course could be good for me."

Nevertheless the news will be a blow to the Isle of Man, who compete under their own flag in the Commonwealth Games.

Cavendish won a gold medal in the scratch race at the Games in Melbourne in 2006, a victory that the Manx Post Office celebrated by producing a special stamp.

It was one of only two medals that the Isle of Man won during the Games and only their third gold medal in nearly 50 years of competing in the event.

Cavendish is currently preparing for the new season at a training camp in Mallorca organised by his team HTC-Columbia and has identified the World Championships as one of his two main targets for 2010.

The other win is to become the first British winner of the green jersey in the Tour de France.
 
Cavendish said: "Last year it wasn't a failure for me not to win the green [points] jersey, although I was disappointed.

"But this year if I don't win it, it will be a failure.

"From now on until I retire, in the Tour the green jersey will always be my biggest aim.

"There's no way I'm changing that target."

Cavendish joins a growing list of top British competitors set to miss the Games, including world heptathlon gold medallist Jessica Ennis and world gymnastics champion Beth Tweddle, while there remains a big question mark over whether Jamaica's triple Olympic champion Usain Bolt will travel there.

So officials will welcome Ohuruogu's declaration that she wants to compete in Delhi and also that she has no fears over security at the Games.



She said: "I'm going [to Delhi] as defending champion and don't want to go in half-hearted.

"No one wants to send people into an area that's unsafe, but I hope the Indian authorities make the necessary preparations.

"I'm sure they will because not to provide the necessary security measures would be negligent.

"I don't think that will happen because it would be a huge embarrassment if they don't have what's required.

"We had the same thing before the Athens Olympics [in 2004] when there was a bomb threat and then there was talk of a boycott before Beijing [in 2008].

"You have to be sensible and not jump on the bandwagon and say, 'I'm not going'."

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