Sir Mark Cavendish has been confirmed in the Astana Qazaqstan team for the Le Tour de France, which starts on Saturday.

The Manx Missile is targeting a record breaking 35th stage win at this year’s event.

The 39 year old from Laxey is currently tied with Eddy Merckx on 34 stage victories.

In total eight stages are expected to finish with a sprint, the first of which is expected to come on stage three in Torino on Monday. The first three stages form part of the Tour’s ‘Grand Depart’, which traditionally takes part in another country, in this year’s case Italy. Cavendish narrowly missed out on the record last year, finishing second on stage seven into Bordeaux, before crashing out of the Tour with a broken collarbone the next day.