• Cycling

Cavendish to make Spanish debut

ESPN staff
August 25, 2010
Mark Cavendish won five stages on this year's Tour de France © Getty Images
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Mark Cavendish will make his first appearance at the Vuelta a Espana after being named as one of nine riders for HTC-Columbia.

Cavendish has not raced since winning the final stage of the Tour de France in Paris last month, but will race in Spain before turning his focus to the World Road Race Championships in Australia next month and the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in October.

Cavendish has raced in the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France but has never competed in the final Grand Tour event, which starts in Seville on Saturday and finishes in Madrid on September 19.

"Our first goal is to get an early stage win with Mark, and then we will see how it goes from there," said HTC-Columbia sports director Tristan Hoffman. "He's in really good shape and very focused, to the point that he didn't do any criteriums after the Tour de France.

"He's going to the Vuelta for the first time and he's taking it very seriously. 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 will then bid to emulate Tommy Simpson in 1965 and become only the second Brit to claim the rainbow jersey at the World Championships in Geelong.

But while Cavendish was part of a nine-strong British team last year, Great Britain have only been awarded three places in the event after Cavendish and Bradley Wiggins have both slipped down the UCI rankings.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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