The British spint ace Mark Cavendish is leaving Team Sky in order to fulfill his Tour de France ambitions after spending this year's race serving as a domestique for race winner Bradley Wiggins.
Cavendish, the 2011 world champion who has 23 Tour de France stage wins, will join the Belgian team Quick Step for the 2013 season.
Wiggins was Team Sky's only priority on the Tour this year as he became the first Briton to win the world's greatest cycling race.
The 27-year-old Cavendish, who had benefited from his team mates' help the previous year to win stages, was no more than a domestique in 2012.
