THE eight riders who will support Mark Cavendish’s bid for the Tour de France yellow jersey on July 5 have been confirmed.
Omega Pharma-QuickStep named its nine-man squad for the Tour, where Cavendish is targeting the 190.5-kilometres opening stage from Leeds to Harrogate.
He has won 25 Tour stages but is chasing the maillot jaune for the first time in his career.
Cavendish’s mother is from Harrogate, giving him additional incentive, while he won two stages in the 2013 Tour and was beaten in Paris for the first time after four straight wins as Marcel Kittel emerged as the sport’s premier sprinter.
Cavendish is reunited in the Tour with Australian Mark Renshaw, who was his key leadout man for many of his 20 stage wins from 2008 to 2011.
The pair rode for separate teams in 2012 and 2013.
World time-trial champion Tony Martin (Germany), 2010 points classification winner Alessandro Petacchi (Italy), Jan Bakelants (Belgium), Michal Kwiatkowski, Michal Golas (both Poland), Niki Terpstra (Belgium) and Matteo Trentin (Italy) complete the team.
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