Cavendish Starts Season Downunder

British cycling ace Mark Cavendish will start his season at next month’s Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road race. Event organisers have confirmed the 30-year-old sprinter will compete at the 31 January event, when he will make his debut with Team Dimension Data.

Cavendish is the third-most prolific Tour de France stage winner with 26 and he won the 2011 world road race championship. His last Australian race was the 2011 Tour Down Under.

He is the first big overseas rider to confirm he will start at next year’s Cadel Evans race and he joins Australian pair Simon Gerrans and Rohan Dennis as the headline names in the field.

He is also the second big overseas cycling name to announce he will race this summer in Australia, but not at the Tour Down Under. The Adelaide event is Australia’s only top-level WorldTour race.

Last month, two-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome announced he will compete at the February Herald Sun Tour in Victoria.

The confirmations of Froome and Cavendish are a massive boost for the profile of the Victorian events. It also continues a trend where big names accept lucrative contracts to race early in the season at non-WorldTour events.

World champion Peter Sagan, last year’s Tour de France winner Vincenzo Nibali and this year’s Tour runner-up Nairo Quintana will all compete next month at the Tour de San Luis in Argentina.

“We wanted cycling’s biggest names in Victoria and that’s exactly what we’ve got,” Victorian tourism minister John Eren said. “The top names belong in the state that does the big events best.

“We want the big sporting events in Victoria, because they mean jobs for locals and a stronger economy.”

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Kittel Takes Giant Quick Step

Marcel Kittel is joining Etixx-Quick Step for the 2016 and 2017 seasons after being released from his Giant-Alpecin contract.

“I want to thank the team for the faith they’ve put in me and that they will support me in this new chapter of my career,” the German sprinter said. “I am looking forward to the new challenges of Etixx-Quick Step, a team I consider to be one of the best in the world.

“I am also happy I have a few friends on this team already, including Tony Martin. Tony is one of my best friends in cycling. We rode together when we were younger and I can’t wait to do it again at the professional level.”

The 27-year-old Kittel has won eight stages of the Tour de France but missed most of this season because of a virus and was left out of the Tour, as well as the Vuelta a España and Germany’s world championship team.

“We are thrilled about the arrival of Marcel,” the Etixx-Quick Step team manager, Patrick Lefevere, said. “He has shown incredible pure speed which makes him one of the best sprinters in the history of the sport. As a team we will do our best to put him in the right condition, building a group of riders around him.”

Kittel’s move was made possible after another top sprinter, Mark Cavendish, left to join the African team MTN-Qhubeka who will be renamed Dimension Data next season.

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New Dimension for Cavendish

Team MTN-Qhubeka will be known as Team Dimension Data from 2016 in a move that could pave the way for Mark Cavendish to join them.

As MTN-Qhubeka, the African team have made a big impact at this year’s Tour de France, where the Briton Steve Cummings won the 14th stage on Mandela Dayand Eritrean Daniel Teklehaimanot became the first African to wear the race’s King of the Mountains jersey.

Cavendish, a 26-time Tour de France stage winner, has been linked with the squad, with his three-year Etixx-Quick-Step deal expiring imminently.

The 30-year-old raced for the Belgian squad for the final time after sustaining a shoulder injury in crashing out of the Tour of Britain, won by MTN-Qhubeka’s Edvald Boasson Hagen.

The sponsorship of the UCI Professional Continental team by Dimension Data is anticipated to take it to the next level, and the global IT company will continue to support the Qhubeka charity, which has provided more than 4,000 bicycles in its BicyclesChangeLives campaign.

The team principal Douglas Ryder said: “We are incredibly excited to have Dimension Data become our new title partner. It enables us to continue to support the development of African cycling and the Qhubeka charity at the highest levels in world cycling.

“This is the next step in our journey and we look forward to accelerating our collective ambitions through this partnership.”

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Wiggins Wins Tour of Britian

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Sir Bradley Wiggins added the Tour of Britain title to his collection after sealing an emphatic victory in London.

Wiggins, who won the Tour de France and Olympic time trial last year, had led since winning the third stage and began stage eight with a 26-second advantage.

British road race champion Mark Cavendish won the concluding stage, his third stage win in this year's race.

But Wiggins, 33, negotiated the 10-lap 88km course along the Thames to retain his place at the top of the standings.

Following a remarkable 2012 in which he was also knighted and voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year, the Briton has been blighted by fitness problems this year.

He had to pull out of the Giro d'Italiabecause of a chest infection and was unable to defend his Tour de France crownbecause of illness and injury.

Wiggins' victory is a second successive home win in the event after Jonathan Tiernan-Locke, who did not compete this year, won it in 2012.

"I said I wanted to win it. It is pressure for the whole week," said Wiggins, who finished safely in the bunch and now turns his attentions to Wednesday's Road World Championships time-trial in Italy.

"Until you cross the line you just don't know. It's all right to think it's a bit of a ceremony round London, but it certainly isn't.

"You cross the line, you're pumped up. It's relief that you've finished and fulfilled it for your team and your team-mates."

After a near-perfect leadout from Omega Pharma-QuickStep team-mate Alessandro Petacchi, Cavendish sprinted away from Sam Bennett and Elia Viviani in a flat-out dash to the finish at Whitehall and claimed the concluding stage in the Tour of Britain for a third successive year.

"This race is thriving. The amount [of spectators] is something I didn't think we'd see," said the 28-year-old, who now has a record 10 stage victories in the event.

And Simon Yates, the British Under-23 team rider who completed a successful day for the home nation by placing third overall, said: "The crowd was unreal. The noise all the way round was deafening."

Stage eight result:

1. Mark Cavendish (GB) Omega Pharma Quick Step - 1hr 47min 22sec

2. Sam Bennett (Ire) An Post-Chainreaction - same time

3. Elia Viviani (Ita) Cannondale Pro Cycling - same time

4. Matteo Pelucchi (It) IAM Cycling - same time

5. Chris Opie (GB) Team UK Youth - same time

6. Evaldas Siskevicius (Lit) Sojasun - same time

7. Sacha Modolo (It) Bardiani Valvole-CSF Inox - same time

8. Alessandro Petacchi (It) Omega Pharma Quick Step - same time

9. Enrique Sanz (Sp) Movistar Team - same time

10. Blaz Jarc (Slo) Team NetApp-Endura - same time

Final general classification:

1. Bradley Wiggins (GB) Team Sky - 29 hours 45 minutes 22 seconds

2. Martin Elmiger (Swi) - IAM Cycling - at 26 seconds

3. Simon Yates (GB) - Great Britain - at 1 min 3 seconds

4. David Lopez (Sp) - Team Sky - at 1 min 8 seconds

5. Jack Bauer (NZ) - Garmin - at 1 min 13 seconds

6. Sergio Pardilla (Sp) - Team MTN - at 1 min 16 seconds

7. Ian Stannard (GB) - Team Sky - at 1 min 34 seconds

8. Sebastien Reichenbach (Swi) - IAM Cycling - at 1 min 42 seconds

9. Michal Golas (Pol) - Omega Pharma Quick-Step - at 1 min 46 seconds

10. Marcel Wyss (COL) - IAM Cycling - at 1 min 57 seconds

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Tiernan-Locke Takes Tour of Britain

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Jonathan Tiernan-Locke became the first British rider to win the Tour of Britain after Mark Cavendish had sprinted to his third victory on the final stage of the Tour of Britain.

Tiernan-Locke (Endura) began the day 18 seconds ahead of Nathan Haas (Garmin-Shap) - and 23 seconds ahead of Damiano Caruso (Liquigas) - and maintained that advantage by finishing alongside his closest rivals in the main bunch.

Cavendish meanwhile, had rounded off his reign in the world champion’s jersey perfectly by outpacing Boy van Poppel (UnitedHealthcare) and Fabio Sabatini (Liquigas) on the cobbled drag to the line.

Immediately after the stage, Cavendish told ITV4: "The victory feels very nice and the fans have been incredible. The amount of people on the road today was like the Olympic Games. That's been the same all week, come rain or shine.

"I thought people had forgotten about me a little bit - it's been all about sideburns this week (laughs) - but seeing the amount of people in Guildford, I just wanted to win.

"It was my last day in the rainbow jersey and I wanted to finish it off in style. The team rode really hard all day. Breaks were going left, right and centre, but they stayed with me and led me to the line. I'm really happy."

Massive crowds had lined the 147.7km route from Reigate and witnessed Simon Richardson (Team IG), Jack Bobridge (Orica-GreenEdge), Wesley Kreder (Vacansoleil), and Pete Williams (Node 4) form the day’s early break.

Williams consolidated his place at the top of the sprint classification by winning the day’s three intermediate sprints, but Team Sky and Endura had the quartet in their sights as they began the final categorised climb of Barhatch Lane.

That was when NetApp came to the front, and the pace the American team set not only overhauled those four riders back, but saw the peloton temporarily splinter as they battled their way to the summit.

Samuel Sánchez (Euskaltel), Liam Holohan (Raleigh) and the plucky Bobridge went clear on descent which followed, and then Bobridge attacked again once the remnants of that break had been reeled back in.

Bobridge would meet the same fate inside the last 13km, and after another solo dig from Pablo Urtasun (Euskaltel), the peloton were back as one as they passed the 6km to go banner.

The pace Team Sky in the closing stages set negated any further attacks, and the near-perfect lead out they produced saw Cavendish romp to Team Sky’s fourth victory and send many of the massed ranks home with smiles on their faces.

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Cavendish King of Dumfries Road

Mark Cavendish of Team Sky recovered from a disappointing start to the Tour of Britain by winning stage three.

The Briton crashed with one kilometre left of the opening stage and was beaten in a sprint by Australian Leigh Howard on Monday.

However, led out by his team, Cavendish sprinted home in Dumfries well clear of Howard and Lithuania's Aidis Kruopis.

Cavendish's 10-second time bonus lifted him to second in the overall standings, on the same time as leader Howard.

"I'm delighted. I knew the finish was downhill but I had the perfect lead-out. It was pretty textbook," said Cavendish, who trails Orica GreenEDGE's Howard because of his lower placings over the three stages.

"We tried a few different things yesterday which didn't quite work out, so (directeur sportif) Servais (Knaven) told us to keep things simple today and go for the sprint. It was straightforward in the end."

Four other British riders - Luke Rowe, who won the opening stage for Team Sky, Russell Downing, Jonathan McEvoy and Yanto Barker - finished in the top 10 on the 152.6km stage from Jedburgh, which featured two category one climbs.

An early five-man breakaway was reduced to two when Dutchman Wesley Kreder and Irishman Peter Hawkins pulled clear with 24km to go.

Belgian Sep Vanmarcke closed the gap before Hawkins fell away with 10km remaining.

Vanmarcke and Kreder were reeled in by the peloton with 2.5km left and Team Sky team-mates Bernhard Eisel and Rowe set up Cavendish to complete the stage win in four hours, 31 minutes and nine seconds.

Of his prospects of winning the Tour, world champion Cavendish, who is preparing to defend his title later this month, said: "I like stage wins, not the general classification.

"I'm wearing the world champion's jersey, so I'd like to save it for that one [the World Championships]."

Briton Kristian House, riding for Rapha Condor, reclaimed the king of the mountains jersey at the expense of Spain's Pablo Urtasun of Euskaltel-Euskadi.

Dutchman Boy van Poppel of UnitedHealthcare, who sits third overall, retained his lead in the points classification, while Node4-Giordana Racing's Peter Williams, another British rider, extended his advantage in the sprints classification.

Stage four of the eight-stage race takes the riders 156km from Carlisle to Blackpool, passing over two second category climbs before a flat finish likely to favour the sprinters.

Stage Three, Jedburgh to Dumfries

1. Mark Cavendish, GB, Team Sky, 4 hours, 31 minutes, 9 seconds

2. Leigh Howard, Aus, Orica GreenEDGE, same time

3. Aidis Kruopis, Lit, Orica GreenEDGE, same time

4. Luke Rowe, GB, Team Sky, same time

5. Sam Bennett, Irl, An Post Sean Kelly, same time

6. Russell Downing, GB, Endura Racing, same time

7. Boy van Poppel, Ned, UnitedHealthcare, same time

8. Jonathan McEvoy, GB, Endura Racing, same time

9. Barry Markus, Ned, Vacansoleil-DCM, same time

10. Yanto Barker, GB, Team UK Youth, same time

Standings after stage 3

1. Leigh Howard, Aus, Orica GreenEDGE, 13:16:28

2. Mark Cavendish, GB, Team Sky, same time

3. Boy van Poppel, Ned, UnitedHealthcare +0:04

4. Luke Rowe, GB, Team Sky +0:04

5. Rony Martias, Fra, Saur Sojasun +0:10

6. Russell Downing, GB, Endura Racing +0:12

7. Steele Von Hoff, Aus, Garmin-Sharp +0:16

8. Nathan Haas, Aus, Garmin-Sharp +0:16

9. Sep Vanmarcke, Bel, Garmin-Sharp +0:16

10. Sam Bennett, Ire, Team IG-Sigma Sport +0:17

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Wiggins Returns for Tour of Britain

Four-time Olympic gold medallist Bradley Wiggins will return to competitive action in the Tour of Britain next month.

The 32-year-old Olympic time-trial and Tour de France champion has been rested by Team Sky following his cycling heroics of the summer.

The eight-stage Tour of Britain starts in Ipswich on 9 September.

The star's involvement in the race was confirmed as he hosted a "Ride with Brad Sportive" in Lancashire on Sunday.

Wiggins said: "I'm doing the Tour of Britain.

"It'll be nice. I'll try to stay fit between now and then so I don't embarrass myself. It'll be good."

Wiggins had originally been earmarked for a return to racing in next week's Tour of Denmark but was given extra time off by Sky.

He is also missing the Vuelta a Espana, which got under way on Saturday.

However he is expected to compete in the road race World Championships in the Netherlands following the Tour of Britain.

Last year's Tour of Britain was won by Lars Boom of the Netherlands, while Britain's Mark Cavendish - now a Sky team-mate of Wiggins - won two stages with his former HTC outfit.

Wiggins did not compete in the 2011 tour following surgery on a broken collarbone he suffered when crashing out of last year's Tour de France.

Tour of Britain

Stage 1 - Ipswich to Norfolk Showground, 9 September

Stage 2 - Nottingham to Knowsley, 10 Sept

Stage 3 - Jedburgh to Dumfries, 11 Sept

Stage 4 - Carlisle to Blackpool, 12 Sept

Stage 5 - Stoke, 13 Sept

Stage 6 - Welshpool to Caerphilly, 14 Sept

Stage 7 - Barnstaple to Dartmouth, 15 Sept

Stage 8 - Reigate to Guildford, 16 Sept

Tour of Britain 2012

The route for September's 2012 Tour of Britain route has been described as the "toughest yet" by race organisers.

Ipswich will host the start of the race for the first time and the opening four stages should suit the sprinters.

The climbers then take over with the hilly stages around Stoke, in Wales and Dartmoor, preceding a difficult finish on the cobbles of Guildford in Surrey.

"The route is certainly our toughest yet," said race director Mick Bennett. "It will make for spectacular action."

The eight-stage race, which starts on 9 September, will feature a selection of riders from the Britain-based Team Sky, although it is not known whether their lead cyclists Mark Cavendish or Bradley Wiggins will take part.

Both are scheduled to ride in the 2012 Tour de France in July before heading to London for the 2012 Olympic road races.

Briton Cavendish, the world road race champion, won two stages on last year's Tour of Britain after withdrawing from the three-week Vuelta a Espana - Spain's equivalent of the Tour de France.

Wiggins, who broke his collarbone during the 2011 Tour de France, finished third at the Vuelta, behind Spain's Juan Jose Cobo and Team Sky team-mate Chris Froome.

This year's Vuelta finishes on 9 September, the day the Tour of Britain begins.

The opening stage, which is also the longest of the Tour, finishes at the Norfolk Showgrounds on the outskirts of Norwich, while the second stage, which crosses the Pennines, is also expected to result in a sprint finish.

Scotland hosts the third stage, where riders will race from Jedburgh in the Borders to Dumfries where they will tackle three circuits of a finish loop.

Torrential rain and storms prevented a proposed finish on Blackpool promenade last year but the race returns this year for an expected sprint in the shadow of Blackpool Tower on stage four.

The hill climbers will come into their own from stage five, which starts and finishes in Stoke and takes in more than 2,000m of climbing around Staffordshire and Cannock Chase.

After that, there is more than 3,000m of climbing through the Brecon Beacons in Wales, ending with two ascents of the Caerphilly mountain climb.

The following day, the riders navigate the Dartmoor hills before heading to Surrey for the final stage and an uphill finish on the cobbled Guildford High Street.

"We can't finish in London this year because of the strain the Olympics and Paralympics are putting on the city," explained Bennett.

"But the alternative is a brute of a day around the Surrey Hills, which has the potential to be pretty spectacular, followed by an atmospheric finish up Guildford High Street."

Five teams have been confirmed for the race - Team Sky, Garmin-Barracuda, GreenEdge, Vacansoleil-DCM and Liquigas-Cannondale.

No British rider has won the Tour since it was restarted in 2004.

2012 Tour of Britain route

9 Sep - stage one Ipswich - Norfolk Showgrounds, Norwich, 199.6km

10 Sep - stage two Loughbrough - Knowsley Safari Park, 193.5km

11 Sep - stage three Jedburgh - Dumfries, 161.4km

12 Sep - stage four Carlisle - Blackpool, 156km

13 Sep - stage five Stoke - Stoke, 146.9km

14 Sep - stage six Welshpool - Caerphilly, 189.8km

15 Sep - stage seven Barnstaple - Dartmouth, 170.8km

16 Sep - stage eight Reigate - Guildford, 147.7km

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