Tiernan-Locke and Edmondson make Sky debut at Challenge Mallorca

Tour of Britain winner Jonathan Tiernan-Locke and young talent Josh Edmondson will both make their debut for Team Sky at the Challenge Mallorca next week (February 3-6) alongside Bradley Wiggins.

Tiernan-Locke signed to Sky from Endura after a breakthrough season that saw him take a host of high-profile wins, culminating in winning the 2012 Tour of Britain. The Devon man also took overall wins in Tour of the Mediterranean, Tour du Haut Var and Tour Alsace, and led the UCI Europe Tour.

Edmondson was another star of the 2012 Tour of Britain. Riding for the Great Britain squad, Edmondson showed that he wasn't fazed by the international presence by attacking on a couple of stages, notably stage six to Caerphilly Mountain.

Tiernan-Locke and Edmondson join eight other Sky riders in a pool of 10 to contest the four-day Challenge Mallorca event. Rather than a pure stage race, each day is a self-contained event - riders do not have to compete every day.

Sky has used Mallorca throughout the winter as a training base, so the event provides a low-stress warm-up for the early season.

Both Tiernan-Locke and Edmondson then head to the Tour of the Algarve, Portugal, over February 14-17 along with Ian Boswell, Sergio Henao, David Lopez, Danny Pate, Kanstantsin Siutsou and Rigoberto Uran.

Later in the season, Tiernan-Locke hopes to be part of Sky's squad for the Vuelta a Espana, his first Grand Tour outing.

Related links

Sky signs Jonathan Tiernan-Locke

Josh Edmondson signs for Team Sky