Team GB Hopefuls Confirmed For Racing

Tour de France sprint king Mark Cavendish will lead his HTC Highroad
team at The Tour of Britain,
while Olympic gold and silver medallist, Ben Ainslie, is to step into
the role of skipper on Oman Sail’s Extreme 40, Oman Air, for the Extreme
Sailing Series. ??

Cavendish has been confirmed as a member of the HTC Highroad line-up for the race, which begins this weekend in Scotland, and also includes fellow members of his sprint team Bernhard Eisel and Mark Renshaw.??

Tour of Britain Race director Mick Bennett, said: ‘As a team we have worked hard over the past fortnight to ensure that Mark Cavendish rides The Tour of Britain’.??

‘We are very pleased that Mark has been given permission by the organisers of the Vuelta a Espana to start The Tour of Britain, and will be able to race in front of home crowds for potentially the final time before the 2012 London Olympics’.

??Cavendish, who has won 20 stages of the Tour de France, last rode The Tour of Britain in 2007, when he won the opening two stages of the race.?

The final Tour of Britain start list will be announced on the evening of Saturday 10th September.

Meanwhile Ainslie, Britain’s most successful Olympic sailor ever, will replace Frenchman Sidney Gavignet, following the announcement in August that he would be leaving the Extreme 40, to head-up Oman Sail’s new Multi One Design 70 campaign.
 
Ainslie has spent an intense 10 months competing in his Finn Olympic dinghy where he is trying to gain selection to the 2012 Olympics to defend his current Olympic title.
 
Ainslie added: ‘After such an intense period of sailing the Finn, it’s going to be great to get out there and do some different sailing. I had always planned to take a break from the Finn after the Olympic Test Event, it’s a great opportunity for me and the switch to a different class will be a real positive’.

‘In the past I have found that it is good to step away, learn new skills, sail with new people and ultimately come back refreshed’.