Mark Cavendish will fine tune his Tour de France preparations by competing at the 2018 HSBC UK | National Road Championships in Northumberland, British Cycling has announced.
The Dimension Data rider will compete in the road race on Sunday July 1, before heading to the Tour looking to add to his 30 career stage wins.
Along with his list of imperious achievements at international level, Cavendish has also enjoyed plenty of success at the HSBC UK | National Road Championships in the recent past. He took the red, white and blue champion’s jersey with victory in Glasgow in 2013, and has been on the podium on two further occasions since, finishing second in 2015 and 2016.
Cavendish battled back from illness to compete at last year’s championships, delighting fans in his homeland of the Isle of Man by lining up for the road race.
With further names still to be announced, Cavendish joins a formidable looking field for this year’s championships: defending men’s road race and time trial champion Steve Cummings; multiple Paralympic champion Dame Sarah Storey; Olympic, world and Commonwealth track champion Katie Archibald; triple Olympic champion Ed Clancy; and one of the sport’s rising stars, Tom Pidcock, have already been confirmed.
This year’s HSBC UK | National Road Championships will be hosted by the popular Cyclone Cycling Festival. The elite events – Thursday’s time trials and Sunday’s road races – will sandwich mass participation events on the Friday and Saturday, which will allow members of the public, regardless of ability, to take part in what promises to be a true festival of cycling.
Further information on the championships, and details of how to enter the mass participation events, are available here.
How to follow
- Live streaming will be available on Facebook and from the British Cycling website from 11:00am on Thursday 28 June and Sunday 1 July.
- The road race action will be broadcast on ITV, with highlights of the women’s road race and live culmination of the men’s race being shown from 3:00pm on Sunday July 1. The programme will then be available on the ITV Hub for 27 days after the event.
- Follow @BritishCycling on Twitter for race updates and on Instagram for the behind the scenes story.
- A full report, results, images and reaction each day on the British Cycling website.
