Mark Cavendish has admitted he knows what team he will ride for in 2012 – but refused to reveal their identity and will remain tight-lipped ‘for a few weeks’.
- Mark Cavendish became the first Briton to win the green jersey at this year’s Tour de France
The pro peloton transfer window opened on August 1 and 26-year-old Cavendish, whose contract with HTC-Highroad expires at the end of the year, has been linked with a move to Team Sky.
“I’m 100 per cent happy in my decision,” Cavendish, who became the first Briton to win the green jersey at the Tour de France last month, told Radio 5 Live.
“I had one of those feelings. There was one more ingredient put into an offer I’d had. I want to go to the best place to help me win. That might be the same place I am at now.”
Cavendish will attempt to become the first British rider to wear the rainbow jersey since Tom Simpson in 1965 at September’s World Championships but the Manx Missile insists he is happy with being tagged as favourite.
“I think with the team I have and the course it is the best chance of my career to win the worlds,” he said. “It is not pan-flat, but it is flat. It is a technical circuit so we have to stay at the front quite a lot. We can go with a strong team and be the favourites to win.”
Before then, Cavendish will spearhead a five-rider British team at the London-Surrey Cycle Classic – the official London 2012 test event on August 14 – but the Isle of Man-born rider said next year’s Tour de France remains his primary goals.
“In the history of road cycling the Olympics is a big thing but not the biggest,” Cavendish added. “As a professional cyclist, it can’t come at the forefront.
“But as a British person the Olympics is a massive thing and at a personal level it comes at the forefront for me.
“I am contracted and work for a professional team [outside of the Olympics] and I have to do what they say first. Next year the Tour de France is a massive goal for me and the Olympics is a massive thing for me.”
