Chris Opie is relishing having another crack at the fastest men in the world in the Tour of Britain.
The Cornish sprinter has mixed it with the likes of Mark Cavendish, Marcel Kittel, Andre Greipel and Elia Viviani during a superb career in the professional peloton.
Now he has set his sights on a fourth appearance in the premier British stage race, where he racked up three top-10s in 2013, including a best of fifth on stage eight.
Opie, who finished third behind Dylan Groenewegen and Caleb Ewan in the opening stage of the Tour de Yorkshire in April, said:
“I heard Mick Bennett (race director) say the other day this year’s route has been designed for the sprinters a little more.
“The race was a big goal for me when I joined the team and now we have qualified, I am very much looking forward to it.
“There’s no Cornish stage! But there will be quite a few roads in different parts of the country I will recognise, which will be nice.
“I hated that on the second day of the Tour de Yorkshire I followed the wrong wheel and got a little boxed in.
“So it will be nice to have another seven opportunities against the World Tour guys – with the time trial not being one of the them!
“It promises to be a very good race. It certainly looks like one for the sprinters and I, for one, can’t wait.”
Opie, who is expected to defend his Ronde van Midden Nederland crown in the build-up to this year’s race, finished 14th on stage two at the Tour de Yorkshire.
He reeled off seven top-10 finishes in the Tour de Korea last season, while finishing second to Groenewegen in the Arnhem-Veenendaal Classic.
Opie, 30, has finished inside the top 12 on six different stages of the Tour of Britain since his debut in the race in 2012. He last raced it in 2015.
Click here for a stage by stage rundown of the 2017
Tour of Britain, which begins in Edinburgh and finishes in Cardiff.
