Intro:

Briton Mark Cavendish is looking to add to his tally of 25 Tour de France stage victories. Also Vincenzo Nibali warns his yellow jersey rivals that he is fit and ready to defend his title while Englishman Simon Yates expects a difficult start to the prestigious three-week race, which starts on Saturday.

Script:

SOUNDBITE: (English) Mark Cavendish, Etixx-Quick team :

"I don't come into the Tour de France trying to beat Bernard (Hinault), you know, at anything to be fair. I have won a range of different numbers of wins in most of the Tour de France's that I have competed in and I would like to add more than one stage to that. But, you know, one stage of the Tour de France in a career makes a riders career, let alone one per year and like I have said Etixx-Quick Steps is here this year with nine strong riders to win across of all days you know. So if we go in and be successful and come away with multiple stage wins, it doesn't necessarily have to be me that's with all those stage wins, as long as we get with these nine guys which we're certainly capable with and it will be a successful Tour de France for us."

SOUNDBITE (Italian) Vincenzo Nibali, Astana Pro Team:

"I had a difficult spring without any victories and I wasn't in the right condition to win races in spring. As defending champion of the Tour de France it wasn't easy to restart the season, but with the help of my coach we've had almost an ideal preparation, more or less the same as last year. Now we have to see how I can profit from my good physical condition."

SOUNDBITE (English): Simon Yates, Orica-GreenEDGE:

"This first nine days I think it is going to be actually pretty easy to lose some time. I am not really suited to these flat lands over this way of the world so I think it will be hard to arrive after these stages in the same time as these GC (general classification) guys, so..."