WITH a sense of timing Sir Larry Olivier could only marvel at, a new Great British Hope has emerged, just in time for the 2007 Tour de France.

Mark Cavendish is just 22 years of age and has been named in the provisonal 13-man squad for the T-Mobile team.

Ordinarily a rider this young would never be risked in the Tour de France, but Cavendish has forced his way into contention with a sensational start to the season, culminating in victory in the final stage of the Ster Elektrotoer race in Holland on Saturday, his sixth win in 2007.

Cavendish has outsprinted the likes of Tour green-jersey winner Robbie McEwan, getting so far up the Australian’s nose that he could have been Barbara Streisand’s Sinex.

The upshot of it all is that for the first time since Barry Hoban rode his last Tour in 1978, Britain has a rider who looks like winning a Tour de France bunch sprint.

Malcolm Elliott came third at Bordeaux in 1987, but otherwise nobody from the UK has looked remotely capable of holding their own when the elbows start flying at 40mph in the final kilometre.

Until now.

Belgium’s Johan Museeuw told the BBC: "Everybody is talking about Cavendish now. His wins demand respect.

"When I was racing British cycling was not so strong. You had guys from the track like (Chris) Boardman who were good but not many who could compete in the big races."

Museeuw is being a little coy here.

There was another reaon why Boardman couldn’t compete over the longer distances demanded in road racing - he hadn’t been pumped full of the performance enhancing drugs that Bjarne Riis, Richard Virenque and scores of others used to win races.

Museeuw neglected to mention this, something that is doubtless entirely unrelated to the fact that his own career was chemically enhanced.

The T-Mobile team endured their own dark night of the soul at almost exactly this time last year, when they were forced to eject Jan Ullrich from their 2006 Tour squad because of his links to the Operation Puerto Scandal.

The repercussions from that forced them to conduct a purge of anyone who even had a whiff of scandal about them and their current riders have signed up to an anti-doping charter.

T-Mobile team will announce their final nine-man team 24 hours before the race starts on July 7.

Cavendish’s record this season, coupled with the interests of a sponsor eager to cash in on the Tour’s visit to the UK, means he’s certain make the final cut if sanity prevails.

Sanity, however, isn’t guaranteed if cycling’s past is anything to go by - Cavendish could yet be T-Mobile’s Jermain Defoe.

IF you suffer from poor eyesight you’ll have missed it, but the women’s Tour de France finished on Sunday and it was won by a British rider.

Nicole Cooke from Wales successfully defended her "Grande Boucle Feminine" title and she was joined on the podium by her fellow Briton Emma Pooley.

The Women’s Tour is admittedly not as demanding as the men’s equivalent as it only lasts five stages, but if you were unaware of Cooke and Pooley’s achievements you weren’t alone. In one national newspaper their exploits were squeezed in between the Australian Rules Football results and the Greek Open Squash Championships.

CYCLING author and television presenter Matt Rendell will be at Waterstones, Fremlin Walk, Maidstone on Tuesday July 3 from 6.30pm, discussing his new book: "Blazing Saddles." Rendell has managed the seemingly impossible task of condensing over a century’s worth of material on the Tour de France into a readable, cliche-free history of the event, useful for both newcomers and aficionados alike.

Another recommended pre-Tour read: Richard Moore’s "In Search of Robert Millar" - a biography of Britian’s greatest ever Tour de France rider. Given the blurb, which tells of Millar’s disappearance and rumoured sex-change operation, the ending is surprisingly uplifting.

THE West Kent branch of the Cycle Touring Club are marking the Tour’s passage through Kent with a celebration at the Halfway House in Brenchley on July 8, with a large screen television that will allow fans to watch the race unfold before the peloton flies through on its way to Goudhurst.

Rides have been organised from the following venues:

• Bexleyheath: 9.15 am from Bexley Post Office; contact Mike Friday 020 8859 7617
• 10.00 am from Paddock Wood railway station (this is a family ride); contact Helen McQuillen 020 8850 6630
• 8.00 am from Rochester Castle Steps; contact Geoff Hunt 01634 719504
• 8.30 am from Orpington railway station; contact Peter Woods 01689 821475
• Green Street Green Bromley: 8 am; contact Adrian Cowie 020 8651 1510
• Sittingbourne: 8.00 am from King George V Playing Field; contact Barry Jordan 01795 429061
• Tonbridge: 9.30 am from Tonbridge railway station; contact Peter Ashley 020 7525 3965

With a brilliant peace of joined-up-thinking, South Eastern Trains have decided to ban bikes on the day of the race, meaning anyone planning to get there via public transport will have to walk from Paddock Wood station - three miles away.