British team reach for the sky at Le Tour

THE most ambitious project in the history of British cycling was revealed yesterday in London's plushest hotel, where, before a small audience, Dave Brailsford, the British Cycling performance director, confirmed that Team Sky will take to the road in January 2010.

"For me, the world changes from today," said Brailsford. "Now it's down to the business of working out what it will take to win the Tour de France with a clean British rider."

That, he said unequivocally, is the ambition of a team that will be backed for four years by Sky. The satellite broadcaster was coy on the value of their sponsorship, though the cost of running a top tier team is anything from 5million-10million.

A Sky spokesman said that "it will be funded competitively with the resources you'd expect a winning team to have," adding that the team is an evolution of their existing partnership with British Cycling, which is focused on increasing participation at all levels of the sport.

It is 25 years since a British rider threatened the podium of the Tour, when Scotland's Robert Millar finished fourth and was crowned King of the Mountains. Since then only one British team, ANC-Halfords in 1987, has taken part but no British rider has got close to the top ten overall.

"The core of the (25-strong] team will be British, but it won't be a meal ticket for British riders," said Brailsford, confirming that he will sign a contingent of overseas riders – likely to include at least one who can challenge for the Tour – to beef up the squad.

Other names in the frame are Scotland's David Millar, Olympic gold medallists Bradley Wiggins and Geraint Thomas and the Kenyan-turned-Briton Chris Froome. Mark Cavendish, winner of four stages on the Tour last year, is under contract with Team Columbia until 2011, but that does not necessarily rule him out.