Mark Cavendish has claimed his first win for Team Dimension Date after he won the first stage on the Tour of Qatar today.

The Manxman, who owns a property in Ongar, is hoping for a successful year with the Tour de France and Olympic Games in Rio both in his sights.

Cavendish leads overall by eight seconds thanks to time bonuses due to a first and second place at the intermediate sprints.

The race began in the town of Dukhan, crossing to the other side of the country to finish at the Al chore Corniche, 180.5km later.

The 30-year-old finished ahead of a group which contained a number of the pre-race favourites, including Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) and Greg van Avermaet (BMC).

Cavendish had Edvald Boasson Hagen and Tyler Farrar with him on the team, though the latter was forced to work hard after puncturing with around 65km to ride.

Despite this, the group eventually built a lead of around one minute 20 seconds.

That gap was reduced and hovered around one minute for a significant distance, though success wasn't guaranteed when the chasing group brought it down below 50 seconds with only 10km left.