Mark Cavendish sixth at Paris-Tours in first race back after illness
Lizzie Deignan triumphs in team time trial at World Championships
By Matt Westby
Last Updated: 12/10/16 11:11am
Mark Cavendish’s hopes for next weekend's World Championship road race in Qatar were boosted by a sixth-place finish on his return from illness on Sunday.
The 31-year-old Manxman had been forced to spend six days off the bike and miss both the Sparkassen Munsterland Giro on Monday and Paris-Bourges on Thursday after developing an intestinal infection late last month.
He appeared to be back up to speed in his comeback at Paris-Tours and had been preparing to sprint for victory when Etixx - Quick-Step's Fernando Gaviria launched a surprise attack inside the final 1km and hung on for the win.
Cavendish will now turn his focus to next Sunday's world road race, which takes place on a flat 257.5km course in and around Doha. He is the bookmakers' favourite to win the rainbow jersey for the second time in his career.
The UCI Road World Championships got underway on Sunday with the team time trials and it proved a good day for Britain's Lizzie Deignan, who helped Boels-Dolmans to a dominant victory in the women's race.
The Dutch squad stopped the clock on a 40km course in 48min 41sec, which was 48 seconds faster than runners-up Canyon-SRAM and 1min 57sec ahead of third-placed Cervelo-Bigla, whose line-up included Britain's Ciara Horne.
Deignan will now begin preparing to defend her elite women's road race title next Saturday.
In the men's team time trial, Etixx - Quick-Step beat defending champions BMC Racing into second place by 12 seconds and Orica-BikeExchange into third by 37 seconds.
