Tour de France - Cavendish named by Columbia

Eurosport - Thu, 26 Jun 19:06:00 2008

CYCLING 2008 Giro d'Italia High Road Cavendish - 0

The 23-year-old Manxman had a nightmare Tour debut last summer, when he crashed in the first two stages and failed to place in the top five in any stage.

However, he had 11 victories on the UCI tour last year, a record for a debut professional season, and then took Madison gold in the 2008 World Track Championships with Bradley Wiggins.

Cavendish also won his first Grand Tour stages with two triumphs at the Giro d'Italia this season.

His team is guided by 12-Tour veteran George Hincapie.

Cavendish and fellow sprinter Gerald Ciolek - who makes his Tour debut - will be supported by Marcus Burghart and Bernhard Eisel.

Climber and team leader Kim Kirchen will be assisted by Hincapie, Tour of Georgia overall winner Kanstantin Siutsou and Thomas Lovkvist.

"We plan to be competitive in every stage without losing the focus on the support for Kirchen in the general classification," said team director Rolf Aldag.

"This team is able to exploit and dictate the tactics on some stages."

Team: Kim Kirchen, George Hincapie, Thomas Lovkvist, Kanstantsin Siutsou, Mark Cavendish, Gerald Ciolek, Adam Hansen, Marcus Burghardt and Bernhard Eisel.

Reda Maher / Eurosport

Comment 1 - 4 of 4

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  1. Its great to see a Mark being given the support he needs at the chance to shine from his team. If only Jeremy Hunt had been given that at Banesto

    From Liam L, on Tue 1 Jul 2:24AM

  2. cav is one of the best around at the moment, just ask the other top sprinters, all of whom have had a good view of his back wheel both this season and last
    From frostythebikeman

    From richard.frost69, on Sat 28 Jun 7:12PM

  3. cav is so good for his age he could dominate the sprints in years to come

    From hamishhore, on Sat 28 Jun 4:06PM

  4. BRITISH SPRINTER!!!!!!?????

    From MadMitch, on Fri 27 Jun 8:27PM
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