 The Tour of Britain will finish on the Mall in London on Sunday |
Mark Cavendish already has his eye on London as the Tour of Britain prepares to get under way in Glasgow on Tuesday. The Isle of Man rider reckons Sunday's final stage in the English capital gives him a great opportunity to shine.
"The London finale should suit me as a sprinter - I'm expecting a very fast stage there," said the 21-year-old.
A field of 146 riders, including such stars as Tom Boonen, Andreas Kloden and Michael Rogers, will fight it out over six stages covering 869.6km.
Cavendish is part of a T-Mobile team which also features two-time world time-trial champion Rogers and German star Kloden.
The race's main attraction is world champion Boonen, who rides for Quick Step, the Belgian outfit which dominated last year's race when Nick Nuyens led from start to finish.
Nuyens was able to take advantage of an early break to set up a race-winning lead on the first stage 12 months ago, but a stronger field makes that less likely this year.
The Quick Step ranks also include Milan-San Remo winner Filippo Pozzato, but there will also be a strong challenge from Davitamon-Lotto's Peter van Petegem and Phonak's Axel Merckx, son of the great Eddie Merckx.
Roger Hammond has returned to lead a Great Britain team of promising riders from British Cycling's development programme.
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