The Tour de France hits the streets of Leeds tonight as anticipation builds for a race where two Britons will be among the main protagonists.

Defending champion Chris Froome (Team Sky) and 25-time stage winner Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) will be among the 198 riders from 22 teams setting off from the University of Leeds to roll to Leeds Arena for the official presentation ahead of the Tour’s most northern starting point yet.

It will mark the start of Britain’s second Grand Depart — after London in 2007 — and the fourth visit of cycling’s biggest race across the Channel following 1974, 1994 and seven years ago.

Cavendish made his Tour debut in 2007 and will start for an eighth time on The Headrow in Leeds on Saturday.

At the end of a circuitous 190.5-kilometre route to Harrogate — which is 25km direct by road — Cavendish will hope to win a 26th stage of his Tour career and with it the race leader’s jersey for the first time.

Chris Boardman, one of six Britons to have worn the fabled yellow jersey, said: “The whole first week there’s opportunities to lose the Tour.

“In the cobbled stage, people could lose time but the thing that makes you lose time is having a puncture. The thing that saves time is having a car immediately behind the bunch.”