Mark Cavendish collected his first win of the season in the opening stage of the Tour of Qatar, as British sailors turn their attentions to this week’s combined 49er, 49erFX and Nacra 17 World Championships in Clearwater, Florida. Here’s our review of the last 24 hours.
Mark Cavendish picked up his first win of the season as he sprinted into the early overall lead of the Tour of Qatar with victory on stage one at the Al Khor Corniche.
The Dimension Data rider formed part of a 21-man lead group when the peloton split apart early in the race and reaped the benefits by beating Sacha Modolo and Andrea Guardini into second and third respectively.
Cavendish received ten bonus seconds for the win, as well as five more at earlier intermediate sprints, and therefore leads second-placed Modolo by eight seconds and third-placed Guardini by 11 at the top of the general classification.
The five-day race continues on Tuesday with a flat, 135km second stage starting and finishing in Doha.
Charlotte Dobson insists she and Sophie Ainsworth will be on a fact-finding mission at this week’s combined 49er, 49erFX and Nacra 17 World Championships in Clearwater, Florida.
With just six months to go until the start of the sailing competition at Rio 2016, 13 British crews will be in action across the three double-handed events, where world title honours and potential Olympic places are up for grabs.
In the women's 49erFX fleet, Dobson and Ainsworth will be joined by fellow Brits and FX World Championship debutantes Sophie Weguelin and Anna Burnet.
"It's reasonably far away from the Games so it's a good opportunity for a peak event early in the year," said Dobson, who finished fifth alongside Ainsworth at the 2015 Worlds.
"We're really looking forward to bringing everything we’ve got. It's a good opportunity for us to see where we are against the fleet and we’ll be trying to do the best we can.”
Six British crews will be looking to make their mark in the 74-boat men’s 49er skiff event, with John Pink the only British entrant to have previous World Championship medal-winning form in the class, having won silver in 2009.
Now sailing with Stuart Bithell, the duo have finished sixth at the previous two editions of the World Championships so will be looking for an upgrade in 2016, while Dylan Fletcher and Alain Sign will also be keen to improve on their previous World Championship finish of tenth at the 2015 event held in Argentina last November.
Podium Potential squad teammates James Peters and Fynn Sterritt had an impressive run to finish fifth at last month's Sailing World Cup Miami, while Scottish brothers Rory and Neil Hunter, Chris Taylor-Sam Batten and Jack Hawkins-Chris Thomas complete the British 49er line up in Florida, while five British crews are set to contest the Nacra 17 mixed multihull event.
Lucy Macgregor and Dave Evans had the best pre-Worlds warm-up of the Brits, finishing fourth at the Sailing World Cup Miami, with Ben Saxton-Nicola Groves winning bronze at the Copa Brasil de Vela in December and European Championship gold in September.
John Gimson and Hannah Diamond were the only British crew in the 2015 World Championship medal race, and were in the hunt for the podium positions until a capsize saw them end the event in tenth.
Podium Potential squad crews Tom Phipps-Nikki Boniface and Rupert White-Kirstie Urwin will also be looking to impress in the 50 boat multihull fleet.
Racing gets underway for all three classes on Tuesday 9 February with the final medal races on Sunday 14 February.
Olympic bronze medallist Beth Tweddle is recovering in hospital in Austria after surgery to fuse fractured vertebrae in her neck.
Tweddle, winner of uneven bars bronze at London 2012, was forced to undergo an operation last night after injuring herself in a fall while training for Channel 4 show The Jump.
Bone was taken from her hip to fuse the two fractured vertebrae along with pinning them together.
She has since been able to move her hands and feet although the 30-year-old, who has quit the show, described the ordeal as scary.
"Thank you so much for your support and concern," she said. "The last 48 hours have been very scary but all the messages have really helped to keep me positive. I will keep you updated on my progress."
Sportsbeat 2016