• Cycling

Tour layout boosts Cav's Olympic hopes

ESPN staff
October 18, 2011
Mark Cavendish will aim to defend his green jersey © Getty Images
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Mark Cavendish reckons that the 2012 Tour de France route, which has nine of the 20 stages designated as flat, will boost his chances of Olympic success.

Cavendish, who will ride for Team Sky next year, is aiming to defend his sprinters' title in the Tour, which ends on July 22, before taking part in the Olympic road race six days later.

"The [2012 Tour de France course] is a lot better to do that," he told BBC Sport. "I can probably get through [the Tour] a lot better than I could with 25-odd hors categorie [beyond characterisation; ie. very difficult] mountains.

"It's going to be a long July - three weeks of the Tour then I've got to keep it going for one more week for the Olympics. I'll have to be as fresh as I can at the start of July and see what happens."

The Tour begins on June 30, with the first three days taking place in Belgium, and there will be three individual time trials, which could be of benefit to Bradley Wiggins, who won World Championships silver in that discipline last month.

Team time trials are out entirely, and there are three summit finishes.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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