"The Giro and the Tour de France for Mark Cavendish" - Astana reveal Grand Tour plan for Manx Missile

Astana's General Manager, Alexander Vinokourov has revealed the Grand Tour plan of his team's star signing Mark Cavendish with the Manx Missile set to double up at both the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France.

"We want to win races and then focus on the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France," the Kazakh former Olympic champion revealed to Cyclingnews. "I don't know if he will finish the Giro, but if he wins stages, it would be great and a good source of motivation for the Tour de France. Mark is open to that, the more races you do the better.”

If reports are to be believed, Cavendish's quest to break the great Eddy Merckx Tour de France stage win record is set to get the Hollywood treatment with Netflix in talks over a fly-on-the-wall documentary. As such the main focus of the British national champion's year has to be the road to Paris.