Mark Cavendish admits he is unsure of how the Tour de France will unfold while Andy Murray cruises in the third round at Wimbledon. Here’s our review of the last 24 hours:
Mark Cavendish knows he has a tough task on his hands as he prepares for the Tour de France that begins on Saturday before his Olympic track campaign soon after.
Cavendish was last week announced as the Omnium rider in Team GB’s squad to head to Rio but first has the small matter of the Tour to contend with that gets underway in Normandy.
The 31-year-old, who will ride on the road for Team Dimension Data, has won 26 Tour stages in his career to sit third on the all-time list.
And with much of this year’s training spent on the track, the Isle of Man rider admits this weekend will be something of a voyage into the unknown.
“It’s been completely different. I’ve had a pretty track [focused] build-up, I used a lot of racing to build my endurance,” he said.
“I really don’t know how it will be. It could be the best thing I’ve done, it could be the worst thing I’ve done.
“I definitely made every single minute of every day count this year. I’m not coming to the Tour just to mess about.”
A star team will always beat a team of stars, according to Team Sky manager Dave Brailsford – and he believes that is exactly what his squad have got as they gear up for another assault on the Tour de France title.
Chris Froome is seeking to defend the crown he regained 12 months ago and will become just the eighth man in history to win Le Tour on three occasions if he is successful.
The 31-year-old will be supported in France by a team full of Grand Tour experience – Olympic gold medallist Geraint Thomas amongst them.
And Brailsford is adamant his man has all the tools to succeed.
"We all know that a star team will always beat a team of stars. From our point of view it's about coming together and trying to achieve that now,” said Brailsford.
"In Chris we've got a fantastic leader, and I think it's fair to say he's taken a slightly different approach to the start of the season than we have traditionally.
"He's coming up to top form a bit later and he'll try to hold onto that through to the Olympics and the second part of the season."
Three years ago Andy Murray brushed aside the challenge of Yen-Hsun Lu to reach the third round at Wimbledon - and five wins later ended a home wait of 77 years for a men’s single champion.
No surprise then if his fans will hope an equally commanding 6-3, 6-2, 6-1 victory over the same opponent is a positive omen of things to come, even if their hero isn’t superstitious.
So far, so good for Murray - who is determined to maintain his energies for the tougher challenges ahead, with Australia's John Millman up next.
"If you can win matches easily it does help because you can rest and it has been a good start for me,” said Murray.
"Hopefully I can start the next match like I finished this one because that was good tennis."
Murray is joined in the third round by fellow Brit Dan Evans, who beat number 30 seed Alexandr Dolgopolov 7-6, 6-4, 6-1 to set up a clash with seven-time champion Roger Federer.
“I genuinely probably didn’t think I’d ever get a chance to play him,” said Evans.
Johanna Konta was determined to accentuate the positives following her second round defeat to Eugenie Bouchard, the Brit insisting she learned a lot from her two matches at Wimbledon.
It was Konta’s misfortune that former Wimbledon finalist Bouchard found her best form in a 6-3, 1-6, 6-1 victory.
And the Brit will now play hard court tournaments in Montreal and Stanford before switching her focus to her Team GB debut in Rio in August.
“I’ve taken away a lot of good things from that match but obviously I wanted to stay longer in the tournament longer,” said Konta.
“I went in with no expectations. I thought she’d play well because while her ranking has gone down in the last year, she’s an incredibly good player and has lots of experience.”
Meanwhile, Heather Watson vowed to use the pain of a difficult Wimbledon defeat to motivate her at the Olympic Games in Rio.
Watson’s match with Germany’s Annika Beck was delayed by 48 hours due to rain but she ended up on the wrong side of a 3-6,6-0,12-10 scoreline.
“That’s one of the biggest disappointments of my career, especially having match points and not being able to win. I always take losses badly but this is one of the worst,” said Watson.
“I packed my schedule so I could qualify for the Olympics, it was my priority for the entire season and while it might have cost me in other areas, I wouldn’t change it.
“I’ve played every week for a couple of months to make that Olympic team because it means so much to me.”
Nicola Adams is relishing the chance to create more history after being named as part of Team GB's largest Olympic boxing squad for 32 years.
Adams is one of 12 boxers – ten men and two women – who will head to Rio looking to continue Great Britain's boxing success at Olympic Games.
Since herself becoming the first woman to win an Olympic boxing title at London 2012, flyweight Adams has gone on to add World, Commonwealth and European Games gold medals to her name.
And she admits that she would love nothing more than to add another Olympic gold to her collection.
"I love representing Great Britain and being part of Team GB at major multi-sport events," she said.
"Great Britain has never had a two-time Olympic champion so I am really looking forward to defending my title in Rio and having the opportunity to make history for a second time."
Long jumper Chris Tomlinson admits the sharp recent decline in his performances was the main reason behind his retirement from athletics.
The 34-year-old competed in three Olympic Games, won a World Indoor Championships silver medal in 2008 and clinched a bronze at the 2010 European Championships during a lengthy career.
But he suffered a bout of glandular fever last summer and announced his retirement on Twitter on the eve of the British Championships in Birmingham last weekend.
"I can pinpoint it back to last July. I jumped just under eight metres with a very ragged technique and then I hurt my groin," Tomlinson told the BBC.
"A couple of weeks after that I got glandular fever and from that point onwards I haven't jumped more than 7.60m.
"I thought it [the British Championships] could be the last one, and I spoke to [wife] Lucia and she said, 'If you're going down there to compete, go and enjoy it and let people know the situation you're actually in'."
Sportsbeat 2016