Cavendish sick before Qatar start

Cavendish headlines the Sky team at the six-stage event, which doubles as his first race in the rainbow jersey for the British-based squad that he has transferred to this year.

“He’s just got a temperature - a bit fluey,” Sky race coach Rod Ellingworth told Cycling Central today.

“He said he felt tired yesterday morning before he got on the flight and then just during the flight he just started to get cold and sweaty a bit. He’s okay, he’s just not going to train today and hope for the best really.”

The 26-year-old enters the 11th edition of the tour - that his former HTC-Highroad lead-out man turned Rabobank rival sprinter Mark Renshaw enters as defending champion - on the back of a team training camp in Mallorca where he tested lead-out combinations with new teammates.

“We’ve been changing things and even Mark has not been the final rider, he’s been up the line and doing some different things as well,” Ellingworth said of the camp.

“It wasn’t just about sort of doing stuff purely for Mark, it was about the training that we’re doing to make sure they all got enough work done.”

The Tour of Qatar begins with a 142.5km road race from Barzan Towers to the Doha Golf Club tomorrow. The 11.3km team time-trial the following day could be the most decisive stage of the race.

Gun German sprinter Andre Greipel, who launched his season with three stage wins at the Tour Down Under in January, has withdrawn from the desert event due to illness but is set to face Cavendish at the Tour of Oman later this month.

The Qatar tour - usually characterised by bunch sprint finishes - has attracted some of the world’s best fast-men with Andrea Guardini (Farnese Vini-Selle Italia) Denis Galimzyanov (Katusha), Tom Boonen (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), Aidis Kruopis (GreenEDGE), Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) and Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Barracuda) on the start list.

Twitter: @SophieSmith86

Sophie Smith is in Qatar as a guest of Amaury Sport Organisation