Mark Cavendish has come a long way in a short time. In 2005, aged 19, he dissolved into tears when he won the World Madison Championship in Los Angeles. “All my life I've wanted to be world champion,” he blurted. Last July he made his Tour de France debut, riding as far as the Alps before concluding that he was “trying to do things I was physically unable to do”. Next weekend in Brittany, however, Cavendish starts his second Tour, with one eye on a stage win and the other on the yellow jersey.

If he is lucky, the 23-year-old from the Isle of Man, known as “Cav” by his team-mates at the High Road team, may snatch both. The rider who once seemed little more than a gauche teenager can now justifiably claim to be the fastest sprinter in world cycling.

Cavendish claims that if he is at the front of the peloton with 200 metres to go, then “there's nobody who can beat me”. After seven significant wins this year, including two tumultuous victories in the Giro d'Italia, few would argue with him. But Cavendish's Giro sprint wins also enhanced his notoriety.

“Cavendish lacks respect,” Paolo Bettini, the world champion, said after watching the Manxman with the thick Scouse accent blast past his Italian peers. Certainly, Cavendish's “cheeky chappie” demeanour has been lost on some, including the former Tour and Giro sprint king, Mario Cipollini, who made a brief comeback last spring at the age of 40 in the Tour of California.

The passing of the sprint torch, from Tuscan to Manxman, was highlighted by Cavendish speeding past an ageing “Lion King” and mimicking gut- busting effort - while pedalling with one leg. Cavendish said later that it was intended as a good-humoured gibe. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Cipollini did not see it that way.

Cavendish, unlike some British riders, has been able successfully to combine road and track racing. In 2007 he was one of the most successful professionals to make his debut on the European scene, winning 11 times and stunning old hands such as Robbie McEwen, of Australia, and Alessandro Petacchi, of Italy.

This year the emphasis was supposedly on track racing and Cavendish was expected to steer clear of the Tour de France. His progress included another world Madison title at the Track World Championships in Manchester last March and he will also race on the track for Team GB at the Olympics in China. His road racing form has been such, however, that a second appearance in the Tour became inevitable.

As was Cipollini's habit, Cavendish is widely expected to race in France until the mountain stages prove too much, but his belief that “the best training for Beijing is the Tour” suggests that he may have the finishing line in Paris on his mind. He survived the Alps and Dolomites in last month's Giro and victory in the most prestigious sprint finish of them all, on the Champs Élysées at the climax of the three-week Tour, would certainly bolster his claim to be the best of the bunch.

Yesterday, in the British Road Race Championship in North Yorkshire, Cavendish was a marked man and could only finish in the main field as Rob Hayles, the veteran, won a two-man sprint to claim the national title for the first time in his career. “I know I've been capable of this,” Hayles said. “I'm 35 and it's been a long while coming. This can only be good for my chances of Olympic selection.”

In Saturday's women's Road Race Championship, Nicole Cooke took her ninth national title, fending off the attacking climbing of Emma Pooley, her probable team-mate in Beijing, in conclusive style. Cooke's latest triumph takes her to within four victories of Beryl Burton's record of 13 national titles. “I'm happy to make my own path in cycling,” Cooke said when told of Burton's record.

Cooke and Pooley are likely to be joined in the Olympic women's road race by Sharon Laws, who is recovering from a cracked tibia sustained in a recent training crash. Over the weekend, Laws returned to training on a static bicycle and her coaching staff remain highly optimistic of a full return to fitness in time for Beijing.