Despite taking 3 stages at last year’s Tour of Britain, OPQS rider Mark Cavendish is realistic about his goals for this year’s edition of the race.

Cavendish has to compete with Marcel Kittel in the pure sprints as well as continuing to recover from his crash at the Tour de France and recapture his top form.

"I'm fresh enough but I just haven't got the really high quality racing miles in my legs this season. That's the plain truth,” he told the race website.

“After opting to miss the Giro, crashing out of the Tour on day one and not recovering sufficiently for the Vuelta I have ridden just one day on the Grand Tours this season, you just can't ever replicate that racing and the fitness it gives you.”

Cavendish helped his teammates at the Tour de l’Ain before taking two wins in the Tour du Poitou-Charentes. However, he will face a much stronger field in his home race and this is where he may lack the final kick to win the races.

"You never say never and I will be flat out but realistically you have to say that I am not in my best condition after the last few months I've had,” he said.

“I'm racing this week because this is my national Tour, Britain's big race, and I always want to support it when I can. I have nothing but good memories of the Tour of Britain and it's always a treat racing on home soil in front of big British crowds. I'm just going to enjoy myself and see what the week brings."

After skipping the Giro, crashing out of the Tour and missing the Vuelta, this means Cavendish will not have ridden a Grand Tour properly in 2014, the first time this has happened since 2007.

"It's felt a bit odd. This has been the first season since I was a neo-pro that I haven't started at least two Grand Tours and it's the first year since I was a neo-pro that I haven't won a Grand Tour stage. It has left quite a hole. You forget how much they dominate your season one way or another."

"But I haven't been that frustrated or pacing around. It's life, it's certainly the life of a bike racer and you just need to deal with it. Riders have crashes all the time and some of them are pretty serious. I've had plenty myself and have almost always bounced straight back up but not in Harrogate I didn't. I've been pretty lucky but this time it was my turn to suffer.”