THE Isle of Man's Mark Cavendish will be aiming for his first victory of the season during the Tour of Oman which starts today (Tuesday).

The HTC-Highroad rider will be in action in stage one which spans 158 kilometres from Al Sawadi to Al Seeb.

HTC-Highroad sports director Valerio Piva said: "This is a good course for Mark, he's got three or four chances in the sprints and there are some hilly stages for him to work on his climbing as well.

"We'd talked about Mark racing here ever since the start of the season, and after he'd crashed in the Tour Down Under (in Australia) and needed some more time recovering it made even more sense.

"Taking part in Oman also means there's less time between one block of early season racing, and his next block, which is when he'll be building up towards his first big goal of the year, a second victory in Milan-San Remo."

Piva says that Cavendish will be gunning for his first victory of the season in Oman, although there are other options in the teams for the sprints, too.

"Mark doesn't need to prove anything to anybody, but a win is a win.

"Matt Goss is also in good shape here, and we've got a great squad for the race's hilly stages and time trial, too - guys like Michael Albasini and Marco Pinotti are both contenders for the overall.

"Our line-up for this race is a really good combination of all-rounders, sprinters, climbers and time trialists. And after our victory in the Tour of Qatar with Mark Renshaw, we're really motivated to try to get another win in the bag here in Oman, too."