Cavendish and Wiggins to concentrate on 2008 Olympics

Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish are planning to race the Giro d'Italia for T-Mobile Team next season, skip the Tour de France and then concentrate on the Olympic Games in Beijing. The two hope to ride together on the British Olympic track cycling team.

"The Tour is not on my programme for next year," Cavendish, 22, told the Manchester Guardian, "because I'm putting everything into the Olympics. I know that as a rider the Tour is more important than the Olympics, but in Britain that's not the case. The Olympics mean more, so I'll be concentrating on the track after the first part of the season."

He is still trained by British U23 coach Rod Ellingworth, who said, "If he gets an Olympic place with Bradley [Wiggins] in the madison then he wants to prepare properly for it, and he's prepared to miss the Tour to do that. It's a sensible approach. He dreams big, but he knows he can't achieve everything at once."

Cavendish had a stunningly strong first pro year, with eleven wins including two ProTour victories. The youngster started this year's Tour de France but dropped out after the eighth stage.

Cavendish and Wiggins are currently riding in the Gent Six Dayrace, where they are in 10th place after three nights. However, race organiser Patrick Sercu is not satisfied with Cavendish's performance there. "Unfortunately Mark Cavendish didn't bring the right form with him to Gent," he said. "It is a pity, because Wiggins is riding OK."