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Four-time Tour de France green jersey Sean Kelly predicts that Briton Mark Cavendish is going to be the next big thing in the world of sprinting.

"Cavendish has shown that he's the big up and coming sprinter, he's the big hope," said Kelly ahead of Saturday's start to the Tour de France.

The 23-year-old Manxman backed up a brilliant 2007 campaign with a pair of stage wins at May's Giro D'Italia, and Kelly thinks he has one more step to take in order to enter the world's elite.

"Cavendish proved that he is the next big sprint star at the Tour of Italy, but a lot of guys say that the Tour de France is completely different," Kelly said.

"The Tour is contested that much more for stage victories, because the Tour is that much more fast and that much more difficult.

"And that is what Cavendish has to live up to now that he has come up to that level. This is certainly going to be the year where it's going to be the real test for him.

"In this Tour he can be one of the real big sprinters in world cycling if he can perform and win stages."

Ireland's Kelly, who won five Tour de France stages over the course of his career, added that Cavendish is right on the cusp of sprinting greatness.

"He has proved himself to quite a big percent but there's a little bit more to go and that's the Tour de France," he said.

"When you study every detail I think he has got it, but that little touch and that little step has to be made and this is the moment coming now."

Cavendish contested several sprints with eventual Tour of Italy points winner Daniele Bennati, winning stages 4 and 13 at this year's Giro and finishing second twice.

Kelly said that during those battles the young Briton proved that he was the strongest bunch sprinter at the very end of stages.

"[Cavendish] showed in the Tour of Italy that he's certainly the strongest in the last 200 metres," he said.

"He showed that against Bennati even though he got caught out of position a couple of times."

In terms of Cavendish's rivals at this year's Tour, Kelly backed three-time green jersey Robbie McEwen to recover from a poor Tour of Italy.

"At the Tour of Switzerland McEwen seemed to be coming into better shape than he was in the Giro D'Italia where he struggled a bit to find his sprinting legs," Kelly said of the 36-year-old Australian.

With some uphill finishes and a stage four time trial in the opening week of the Tour, this year's race could see the overall contenders steal the spotlight from the sprinters in the early going.

"There's not as much room as there has been in the past number of years for the sprinters in the first week, Kelly said.

"For that reason we could see some of the favourites get into that leading position earlier than some of them would like to be.

Of the general classification favourites, Kelly says that Cadel Evans's experience gives him a crucial edge over Caisse D'Epargne's Alejandro Valverde.

Valverde was billed as cycling's next big star after beating the retiring Lance Armstrong in a mountain stage at the 2005 Tour, and though he won this year's Criterium Dauphine Libere the Spaniard has struggled to make any hay in the last two editions of the Tour de France.

Australia's Evans, meanwhile, has exceeded expectations despite riding for weaker teams at Le Grand Boucle, finishing runner-up last year and fourth in 2006.

"Valverde is certainly going to be interesting because he's prepared really hard for this one," Kelly said. "He's done very little racing but he's still in very good shape after winning the Dauphine."

"The big ask is can he do it for a three week tour? He seems to be able to do it for two weeks, but for three weeks he's had problems.

"Evans has proved before that he can do a three week event and be consistent every day over those three weeks so he has that advantage."

Kelly warns, however, that Evans could find himself in the uncomfortable position of being the race favourite for the first time in his career.

"There's a little bit extra there going for Evans, but sometimes that can be a problem because he's the biggest favourite and the weight of expectations can be very heavy, especially since he really has not been in that position before."

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Jeremy Stahl / Eurosport