Mark Cavendish will continue his pursuit of Eddy Merckx’s all-time record for stage wins at the Tour de France but there is no place for Steve Cummings in the Team Dimension Data squad.

Cavendish has 30 career Tour de France stage wins, four short of the record held by five-time overall winner Merckx, and will take his place on the start line of the Tour for the 12th time.

The 33-year-old Manxman has battled a series of illnesses and injuries since winning four stages in the 2016 Tour, seeing his race ended by a crash on stage four last year, but is optimistic of making up more ground on Merckx.

“I’m so excited to be able to ride the Tour de France again in my career, for the third time in Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka,” Cavendish said.

“The Tour de France is not only the biggest cycling event on the planet but it’s one of the biggest sporting events on the planet; and it’s the best platform to get across what we as Team Dimension Data do for our charity Qhubeka, to get people in rural parts of Africa on bicycles.

“I’m excited to be part of a strong team and I’ll be looking at getting closer to that record of Eddie Merckx.”

Cummings, who won stages of the Tour in 2016 and 2017, misses out after a season disrupted by allergies. The 37-year-old was sidelined for several weeks after the Tour de Romandie at the start of May, returning for the Criterium du Dauphine earlier this month.

Instead, Dimension Data have gone with a team focused on delivering Cavendish to the front on sprint stages, with his long-time team-mate Mark Renshaw joined by Julien Vermote, Edvald Bassoon Hagen and Reinhardt Janse van Rensburg.

Serge Pauwels, winner of the 2017 Tour de Yorkshire and third in this year’s edition, is also included along with Tom Jelte-Slagter and South African Jay Thomson.