Doull to make Team Sky debut at Paris-Tours

Olympic Games gold medallist Owain Doull will make his Team Sky debut at Paris-Tours this weekend.

The WIGGINS rider is competing for Team Sky as a stagiare for the rest of the season before making the switch permanently to the team for the start of the 2017 season.

Doull’s last race outing came at the Tour of Britain in September. He used the week-long race to hone his road form after dedicating himself to the track, where he won a gold medal in Rio as part of Great Britain’s team pursuit squad.

Doull will be joined by a strong team, with Elia Vivianni the likely leader. The Italian, who won gold in the Omnium in the Olympics in Rio, has been improving his road form in recent weeks, too, and will co-lead the Italian national team at the UCI Road World Championships in Doha, Qatar in just over a week.

Ian Stannard and Luke Rowe will also take part in Paris-Tours before heading to the World Championships, where they will support Mark Cavendish, who is aiming to win his second world title on the road.

Andy Fenn, Michal Golas and Lars Petter Nordhaug make up the rest of Team Sky’s seven-man team for the one-day French race. Team Sky confirmed their line-up via Twitter on Thursday morning.