Mark Cavendish and Geraint Thomas return for Tour of Britain

Mark Cavendish and Geraint Thomas, both of whom crashed out of the Tour de France in July, will return to racing on Sunday as the OVO Energy Tour of Britain gets under way in Edinburgh.

Yesterday, Dimension Data named Cavendish in its line-up, while Thomas has been selected in Team Sky’s roster for the race, which concludes in his home city of Cardiff.

Edvald Boasson Hagen, who won the race in 2009 with Team High Road and with Dimension Data in 2015, will spearhead the South African team’s challenge.

Both he and Dimension Data are seeking what would be a unique hat-trick of successes with Steve Cummings winning the race last year.

Dimension Data sports director, Roger Hammond, said: “It is great to be heading back to the OVO Energy Tour of Britain this week.

“As this event has grown in stature year on year, so has our team and the last two years in particular were fantastic for us.

“We always receive a huge amount of support in the UK for the team and for Qhubeka.

“With our partners, Dimension Data, Deloitte and Nederburg having such a large in presence over here too, the Tour of Britain is a very special and key event for our team.”

He added: “We will no doubt be looking to put on a good show once again, we always start a race with the goal to win, this year's Tour of Britain will be no different.”

The team’s squad for the race is completed by Bernie Eisel, Jay Thomson, Mark Renshaw and Scott Thwaites.

Packing to race for the 1st time in 2 months, after my broken shoulder. Looking forward to racing @TourofBritain again with @TeamDiData.

— Mark Cavendish (@MarkCavendish) September 1, 2017

Thomas meanwhile is joined in the Team Sky line-up by fellow Cardiffian Owain Doull, as well as Michal Kwiatkowski, Vasil Kiryienka, Elia Viviani and Tao Geoghegan Hart.

Thomas, a past points winner at the race, said: "The support from the British fans is always fantastic and it’s going to be great to race at home. We’ve got a strong squad coming and I’m really looking forward to it.

“Coming back to Cardiff is going to be special and it’s something the Welsh guys have been talking about since the route was announced. I’m sure the fans will do us proud.”