Cavendish, who arrived in Doha from his Tuscany training base on Monday, had to take a week off the bike earlier this month after a gastrointestinal illness he thinks he picked up during the Tour of Britain.

But the 31-year-old Manxman is now recovered and in good spirits as he goes for the final goal he set earlier this year: making the British Olympic track team, winning the opening stage of the Tour de France to wear the yellow jersey for the first time, an Olympic medal and a second world road race title.

It seemed ambitious, even unlikely, at the time, particularly as some in the sport thought his best days were behind him, but Cavendish comes to this race as the favourite for good reason after a campaign that has surpassed even those lofty targets.

Olympic selection was sealed with victory in the two-man madison with Bradley Wiggins at the track world championships, he followed that first-stage win at the Tour with three more to take his total to 30 and he then claimed a silver medal in the omnium at Rio 2016.

Victory on Doha's artificial island the Pearl would cap his best year since winning the 2011 world title in Copenhagen and make him the first rider in the modern era to win a world champion's rainbow jersey on the track and road in the same season.

Speaking to Press Association Sport, Cavendish said: "I'm not really thinking about that now: I just really want to win this race. I want to be world champion again.

"I will reflect properly on everything else at the end of the year but I'm very happy with how things have gone. Hopefully I've reminded people that I'm not a bad bike rider."

It was Cavendish's agent Simon Bayliff who revealed the sauna sessions, saying: "He tells me he's been in there several hours a day - I've no idea if he takes his bike in with him but he says it's working."

As well as the heat, Qatar's other major issue for riders is the wind, particularly in the first 150km of the race in the open desert north of Doha. The forecast is for winds of 15mph, which could split the bunch, or peloton, into several smaller groups called echelons.

This might play into the hands of squads such as Belgium's that lack a top sprinter, as they will not want a large group to get to the finish for a bunch sprint, which is precisely what Great Britain will be trying to do for Cavendish.

But Cavendish is not overly concerned about an early break staying away, particularly as GB is not the only team that will want a sprint finish.

"If the wind blows there will be echelons but it will all come together for the last few laps of the Pearl," said Cavendish, referring to the seven 15km laps of the plush new development that will whittle down the field at the end of the race.

"It's all about positioning, really, and how much effort you make before you get to that last lap.

"That's why guys like (Team Sky duo) Luke Rowe and Ian Stannard will be key - they are so good at controlling races like this."

The Pearl's hair-pin corners and roundabouts will make the need to save energy even more important, as the riders will be repeatedly forced to brake and accelerate.

Cavendish, who came through an unofficial fitness test last week at the 250km Paris-Tours race, knows these roads better than most, having twice won the overall title at the Tour of Qatar.

That race is in February, when the temperatures are perfect, but the championship course is almost identical to the one used for this year's second stage, where Cavendish was pipped on the line by the powerful Norwegian Alexander Kristoff.

"Yeah, I remember, but a sprint after 250km is not the same as one after 135km, so we'll see," said Cavendish, who was speaking at an event for the American Pistachio Growers, one of his sponsors.

"And I know the way: right at the telegraph pole, then left at that camel."

Kristoff is one of a select group with the finishing speed to win what should be a drag race to the line but Cavendish's main threats are more likely to be Germany's Andre Greipel, defending champion Peter Sagan and Colombia's in-form Fernando Gaviria.

And with the British squad failing to win anything on the first six days of competition - apart from the right to host the 2019 championships in Yorkshire - as well as the continuing fallout from the various suspicions surrounding Wiggins, Team Sky and British Cycling, a trademark Cavendish win could never be more timely.