Tour of Qatar: Cavendish dedicates win to his unfortunate team-mate

He spent much of the winter in the velodrome

Mark Cavendish receives the winner’s gold jersey in Qatar (AFP)

Mark Cavendish claimed overall victory at the Tour of Qatar but immediately acknowledged that the win should have gone to team-mate Edvald Boasson Hagen, who led the race until suffering a puncture on Thursday.

“Obviously it’s nice to be wearing gold now, but I know I am only wearing it on behalf of Edvald,” Cavendish said. “He only lost it because of bad luck. He should be the guy wearing this gold jersey but we are just super happy to keep it in Team Dimension Data.”

Cavendish triumphed overall despite losing the concluding fifth stage by a photo-finish to Alexander Kristoff of Katusha, who picked up his third stage of the five-day race.

Mark Cavendish (centre) (AFP / ERIC FEFERBERGERIC FEFERBERG/AFP/Getty Images)

Despite that, the Norwegian could only finish runner-up to the Manxman overall by five seconds.

Cavendish’s win was the first general classification success of the season for Team Dimension Data, previously known as MTN-Qhubeka, whom Cavendish joined this season.

Having now shown his road form at the venue for October’s Road World Championships, Cavendish may next turn his attention to the track, with the World Championships taking place in London in early March. He is seeking to ride the six-discipline omnium for Britain at the Rio Olympics.

He spent much of the winter in the velodrome, only returning to his road bike on 18 January. Selection for the World Championships is up to British Cycling technical director Shane Sutton, head coach Iain Dyer and endurance coach Heiko Salzwedel.