One of Mark Cavendish’s main rivals for the sprints in the Tour de France is set to race through west Essex and East London after two more teams confirmed their nine-strong squads for the world’s biggest cycling race.

German star Andre Greipel, who has five individual stage wins in ‘Le Tour’ to his name, will line up on the start line in Leeds on Saturday, July 5 with his Belgian Lotto-Belisol team, while Swiss outfit IAM Cycling have also named their nine-strong team to add to the line-up released by Cavendish’s Omega Pharma Quick-Step outfit.

Assuming all the riders emerge unscathed from the first two days of racing in Yorkshire, a total of 198 from 22 teams will be race through our areas on July 7 en route to the finish of Stage Three in The Mall.

IAM Cycling: Sylvain Chavanel (France); Martin Elmiger (Switzerland); Mathias Frank (Switzerland); Heinrich Haussler (Australia); Reto Hollenstein (Switzerland); Roger Kluge (Germany); Jerome Pineau (France); Sebastien Reichenbach (Switzerland); Danilo Wyss (Switzerland).

Lotto-Belisol: Lars Bak (Denmark); Bart De Clercq (Belgium); Tony Gallopin (France); Andre Greipel (Germany); Adam Hansen (Australia); Greg Henderson (New Zealand); Jurgen Roelandts (Belgium); Marcel Sieberg (Germany); Jurgen van den Broeck (Belgium).