Despite U.K. media speculation, Manx cyclist Mark Cavendish has played down any talk of him joining the new British Team Sky road squad which is due to be launched next season.

The 23-yeal-old from Laxey has told Cycling Weekly that he is extremely happy at Team Columbia-Highroad, and is contracted to them until the end of 2010 with an option to extend for a further year.

Both the Sun and BSkyB, which are both owned by News Corporation, ran the story with pictures of Cav.

He told Cycling Weekly "I saw the newspaper reports and the pictures and it was a bit like advertising that Cristiano Ronaldo was going to move to Chelsea. In fact, at this stage, there's about as much chance of Cristiano Ronaldo joining Chelsea as there is of me leaving Columbia. It's the best team in the world, and I'm happy where I am."

Cavendish returns to racing in Europe this weekend when he rides the Eroica one-day race in Italy on Saturday.