Although not the record number of riders when ten competed as a British team (only two finishers) in the 1955 Tour, it is the biggest number of Brits for some time.
The Isle Of Man's Mark Cavendish, who holds the British record for number of stage wins in the Tour De France, has set the Green Jersey as his goal for this year's Tour which starts in Rotterdam on Saturday July 3rd whilst Bradley Wiggins who finished fourth in last year's tour, will be amongst the favourites for the twenty stage race.
Mark Cavendish
Wiggins is the number one rider for Team Sky who have Cardiff's Olympic Gold Medalist Geraint Thomas and Wirral born Steve Cummings in their nine man team.
Carvelo Test Team also have two Brits in 36 year old Jeremy Hunt, the British national road race champion in 1997 and 2001 and yesterday called up Dorset's Daniel Lloyd as a replacement for Heinrich Haussler. The German has a knee injury which he aggrevated in the recent Tour De Suisse when he was involved in the crash with Mark Cavendish.
Yorkshireman Charles Weglius will again be in Le Tour action after being selected by the Omega Pharma Lotto squad whilst the highly experienced David Millar is back again for American team Garmin Transisitions.
David Millar
Although, they still have to fully announce their squad which will be unveiled to the public in Rotterdam at a meet the riders session on Thursday. AG2R La Mondiele have said that Nicholas Roche, son of Ireland's TDF star Sean Roche will be riding for their team.
Nicholas Roche
You can follow the tour on Eurosport and ITV4.
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