Cav in world championships from midnight

Mark Cavendish rides in the world road race championships in Melbourne, overnight.

The 25-year-old Manx cycling star is up against it though, competing with just two team-mates, David Millar and Jeremy Hunt, and facing a course which isn't really sprinter-friendly.

However, he has dismissed quotes from a Belgian website, which claimed Cav was heavily playing down his chances of victory, and 'revising his ambitions' after seeing the route in person.

Cav said he was 'not surprised at all' when he saw the course.

He said: 'Everything is exactly how it looked [on the map beforehand], it is just that the new bridge makes a massive difference. It really slows down the run into the second climb'.

He said that was the only thing different from what he had seen.

The race starts at 10am tomorrow (Sunday) local time, which is midnight tonight here.