FORMER world champion Mark Cavendish is set to compete at the 2015 Aviva Tour of Britain next month.
The British rider will lead the Etixx Quick-Step team for the eight-day race which comes to Scotland for two stages on September 8 and 9.
Cavendish will be joined in action by three-time world cyclo-cross champion Zdenek Stybar with the remaining members of the six-man roster due to be named in the coming days.
It should tee up a lively battle between Cavendish and long-time sprint rival Andre Greipel who it has already been confirmed will race for Lotto Soudal.
The rivalry between Cavendish and Greipel dates back to when they both joined T-Mobile in 2006 and continued through the team's various incarnations as Highroad, Columbia and HTC.
They have regularly sparred over the years, with the German arguably currently holding the upper hand after a strong Tour de France which saw him take four stage wins to Cavendish's one.
Cavendish, who recently announced his ambition to represent Great Britain on the track at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, would undoubtedly refute that assertion with 26 Tour de France stage wins to his name.
He also has 10 stage victories in the modern Aviva Tour of Britain – more than any other rider.
"I'm excited to ride the Tour of Britain" said Cavendish. "It's my 'home' tour and always something special to ride in front of your national crowd.
"It's already my eighth time at the race and year-by-year I can see how cycling is growing in this nation. We are at the start to try to be successful as we were last year.
"We have a strong team and we are ready to race. This year the course is extremely difficult. It will be also a good final preparation for the UCI World Championships in Richmond."
In marked contrast, his team-mate Stybar – who won a stage of the 2015 Tour of France as well as the Italian one-day classic Strade Bianche earlier this year – will make his debut on British roads.
"I'm pretty curious about it," he said. "My team-mates told me that it's a tough race, without a metre of flat road, designed in great scenarios.
"It will be even more difficult because the teams are formed by only six riders, so it's not easy to control the race. The atmosphere will be great, I'm sure.
"I have never raced on the road in the UK, but I remember the great images of the Olympics [in 2012] and the Grand Depart of the Tour de France last year."
While still to be officially confirmed by organisers, Olympic champion and 2012 Tour de France winner Sir Bradley Wiggins told reporters at the Revolution Series in Derby earlier this month that he will form part of his eponymous team's six-strong roster.
MTN-Qhubeka, the South African-based team that was the surprise hit of this year's Tour de France, has already announced that sprinters Edvald Boasson Hagen and Tyler Farrar will be in its squad alongside 2013 Milan-San Remo winner Gerald Ciolek.
Eritrean Daniel Teklehaimanot, who made history at the Tour de France by becoming the first African rider to wear the King of the Mountains jersey, will also compete.
Dylan Van Baarle (Cannondale-Garmin), overall winner of the 2014 Tour of Britain, will return in a bid to defend his title.
The line-ups of Team Sky, BMC Racing, Tinkoff-Saxo and Movistar are yet to be announced.
The 2015 Aviva Tour of Britain gets under way in Wales on September 6 and will arrive in Scotland two days later.
Stage three begins in Cumbria on September 8 before winding its way north-east through Dumfries and Galloway towards Kelso where the final kilometres of the race will take place in the grounds of the 18th-century Floors Castle.
Racing will resume in Edinburgh with stage four departing from Holyrood Park through the streets of the capital into East Lothian and the Scottish Borders before finishing in Blyth, Northumberland.
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