With the first stage ending literally in front of his mother's hourse, the first stage of the Tour de France has been Mark Cavendish big season goal. Going into the race, however, the Brit takes the pressure off himself and says that it's all about performing well throughout the entire race.

Omega Pharma - Quick-Step Cycling Team met with the media on Thursday for a press conference prior to the 101st edition of the Tour de France. The following text are comments made by Mark Cavendish.

On the chance to wear yellow on Saturday

It's incredible. For the second time in my career the UK has the grand depart of the Tour de France, the biggest bike race in the world. To think the first days are in Yorkshire and the first stage finishes in my mother's town of Harrogate is really exciting. I remember being in Harrogate many summers. My grand parents live here, my uncle still lives here. It's nice to return and look around at the places I knew when I was young. The support of not just Yorkshire, but the whole grand depart has been phenomenal. When I came weeks ago to recon the course, the vibe that was around here was phenomenal. It was something I've never seen. The support from people, the people who do or don't know about bike racing, it's been absolutely tremendous. I don't think anyone can really anticipate how big it's going to be this weekend and I'm looking forward to savoring that. But, it's not a given that we will come away with the yellow jersey. Things can always go right or wrong at the Tour de France. There's 200 riders on the start line almost, and every one of them would like to win the yellow jersey. It's a big honor. The media focus happens to be on me because my mother's from Harrogate. I'd like to win the first stage, Omega Pharma – Quick- Step has a strong team, but the Tour de France is 21 days long and it doesn't finish after the first stage or we leave Yorkshire. We've got an incredibly strong Omega Pharma – Quick-Step team here and we'd like to do well across the three weeks.

On his 2014 training program leading up to the Tour

I feel in good condition for this Tour de France. A lot of guys who were at the Tour de Suisse got sick but hopefully I am over that. I've had nine wins this year and the team is close to 50 already. We've been super successful all season, racing across the board, and put a strong team together for the Tour de France that will try and do well over these three weeks.

On his motivation and his competitors

I'm incredibly lucky to have won 25 stages at the Tour de France. It's the biggest bike race in the world and to come here with the successful teams I've been part of has been monumental to my career. Sure I'd like to win as much as possible, as much as I can. One win in a rider's career can be the highlight of their career, not just one win a year. Omega Pharma – Quick-Step came here last year and won four stages. That's a successful Tour, that's about one out of every five stages. We want to come here and repeat that. We want to be successful and win WorldTour stages. There are strong riders on other teams who also want to do well, but we're all really motivated to try and get good results.