Millar and Cavendish Set Their Targets

David Millar and Mark Cavendish will both have specific targets in the opening week of racing, with the Scottish all-rounder looking to ride strongly in Tuesday's time-trial and in the Massif Central on Thursday and Friday, hoping that he can either win a stage or that the race situation puts him in with a chance of the yellow jersey, while the Manx sprinter aims for wins in the four or five stages that he believes will end in bunch sprints.

As his High Road team's new main sponsor, Columbia sportswear, unveiled its sky-blue jersey yesterday Cavendish said he is lighter, stronger, more self-assured and more relaxed than when he turned up at last year's London start as a distinctly hyper-looking debutant, living every moment to the full but probably wasting mental energy in the process.

"I'm more confident than I was. I know it would be hard to get more confident than I was, but in the races the fact that I have a strong team behind me adds to it. I know I can win anyway." His two stage wins in the Giro d'Italia have "added to my confidence. It's knocked some of the other sprinters. I've got a psychological edge".

Cavendish said that winning up to three stages in the first week is "more than feasible if you look at it logically. I'm the fastest there at the end of the bike race, but the issue is getting to the end of the bike race. There's four stages I think will end in a bunch sprint, five possibly could, so obviously we've targeted those."

The opening stage today running south-east to the Breton cycling mecca of Plumelec should see a mass finish - although threatened rain and gales may well lead to crashes and splits in the field - but the final mile is up a short, steep climb which will not favor the pure sprinters; he will stand a better chance in tomorrow's run northwards to the coastal town of Saint-Brieuc.

With the Olympics in the back of his mind, Cavendish is determined to go as far as he can in his second Tour. "I'll aim to finish. It's not fair on the organizers, the team or the sponsor to race with the aim of not finishing. If I'm too tired I won't finish, and if I'm not good enough I won't make the time limit, so maybe I won't finish, but mentally I'm aiming to do 21 days."

For all that Millar is eight years Cavendish's senior, he too has matured in the last 12 months, thanks, he says, to the responsibility of having a stake in the Slipstream squad.

Like Cavendish, the Scot finished the Giro d'Italia for the first time, but he did so essentially as training for the Tour, following it with altitude training camps in Switzerland and Spain, losing 3kg in weight. "I came out of it mentally pinging, switched straight into Tour mode and started dieting."

There is one other Briton in the race, but he is not officially British quite yet. Chris Froome is a member of the Barloworld team and a product of the International team based at the ICU's cycling centre in Aigle, Switzerland. Froome has ridden the Commonwealth Games and world championships for Kenya, but has always held a British passport and is currently working on getting a UK racing license in an attempt to qualify for the Olympic Games.