Tour de France: Can the Manx Missile make it 35 stage wins?

Today's stage expected to end in first field sprint of 2024 competition

This year's Tour de France is now well underway, and the Island's very own Sir Mark Cavendish is hoping to make history with today seeing the first flat stage of this year's event.

The 'Manx Missile' is competing as part of Astana Qazaqstan's squad on the prestigious grand tour for 2024, which runs through until the 21 July.

In stage two of the event yesterday (30 June), Cavendish crossed the line just over 20 minutes behind the leaders, having struggled with sickness on the opening day.

Today's third stage, a 230.8km stretch, is widely expected to be the first to end in a field sprint for this year's event.

As it stands, Cavendish is currently the joint all-time stage wins record holder, on 34 victories, alongside cycling legend Eddy Merckx.

But could that all change today?

Ahead of the start line in Florence on Saturday, Cavendish told reporters he'll do what he can to add to his tally:

Siobhán Fletcher takes a look at what led Cavendish to this moment:

Today's stage gets underway at 11:15am BST.