Cavendish riding high

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Cavendish will don the leader's yellow jersey in today's first stage from Reading to Southampton after completing the 2.5km Prologue course around Crystal Palace Park more than a second quicker than any of his 100 rivals.

Perfect fit: Cavendish pulls on the yellow jersey

In doing so, he eased some of the pain suffered in this year's Tour de France. The emotional T-Mobile rider collided with an overzealous spectator on the run-in to Canterbury, was brought off his bike and left in tears as his dream of a stage win of Le Tour in his homeland was dashed.

There was no danger of a repetition yesterday around the closely patrolled course that also contained an uphill stretch that qualified as a hill. As the fastest man to the top, Cavendish was also awarded the King of the Mountains polka dot jersey, a source of much amusement to the 22-yearold.

He said: "I'll be proud to wear the yellow jersey in Britain, but I think the most surprising thing was the polka dot jersey. It's the first one I've ever worn."

If the Tour of Britain is a distant — and poor — relation of the Tour de France, with Big Ben and Buckingham Palace being swapped for the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre and a duck pond, it is benefiting from the legacy of the two magical days in July when Le Tour visited these shores.

Cavendish's T-Mobile team-mate Linus Gerdemann, a stage winner in the Alps, said: "I was really surprised during the Tour how enthusiastic the British fans were. I had good experiences here for those two days, so I decided to come back to Britain to ride in this race."