Must reads: Cav to Sky?; cops pull over low-light Bertie; French take cold dip

The Daily Mail: A British dream team?

The Daily Mail’s Richard Moore is reporting that Mark Cavendish is set to join Team Sky for the 2012 season. Team officials refused to comment on the report, but Cavendish’s contract with HTC-Highroad ends at the conclusion of the 2011 season.

The Associated Press: Contador and the fuzz

Alberto Contador was pulled over by police Wednesday for cycling without lights while training for his Tour de France defense in France.

The Spaniard was undergoing specialist training on the descent of the Galibier pass in the Alps for the mountain stages of the Tour when a policeman brought him to a halt.

Spokesman Jacinto Vidarte said the officer told the three-times Tour winner that he was not visible enough on a road that snakes through dark tunnels.

Vidarte told Associated Press that Contador argued that his team’s cars were lighting his way sufficiently, but was forced to give up and “put his bike in the car.”

Reuters: French take cold dip to prepare for Tour

Spending three minutes in a cubicle at minus 150C is not exactly the kind of thing you dream of doing first thing in the morning, yet riders from the FDJ team will do it every day on the Tour de France.

“The method was created in the Eastern countries some 30 years ago,” FDJ team doctor Gerard Guillaume told Reuters. “It is used in rheumatology and traumatology. Those who used it would treat people and athletes recovering from accidents or crashes. They eventually realized that it helped the athletes recover from great efforts.“