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Britain's Mark Cavendish has been named in HTC-Columbia's team for the Vuelta A Espana which starts on Saturday.

The sprinter, who won five stages in this year's Tour de France, is among nine HTC-Columbia riders who will take the start in Seville.

It is the first time the 25-year-old has taken part in La Vuelta, the final Grand Tour on the cycling calendar.

"Our first goal is to get an early stage win with Mark," said HTC's sports director Tristan Hoffman, who said Cavendish did not plan to drop out when the race hit the mountains.

"He is going to the Vuelta for the first time and he is taking it very seriously," said Hoffman.

"He knows there's a lot of climbing but he did really well in the mountains in the Tour de France and he will be looking to race as strongly in September as he did in July."

Cavendish narrowly missed out on the green jersey at the Tour de France, and also hopes to ride the World Championship road race in Melbourne on October 3.

HTC-Columbia Vuelta A Espana team: Lars Bak (DEN), Mark Cavendish (GBR); Bernhard Eisel (AUT), Matt Goss (AUS), Hayden Roulston (NZL), Kanstantsin Sivtsov (BLR), Tejay Van Garderen (USA), Martin Velits (SVK), Peter Velits (SVK).

Eurosport