Though Mark Cavendish‘s success at the Dubai Tour was limited to a stage win and no jersey to show for it, he’s satisfied with how he fared in his first race of the season.

After reaching the top of the podium with a victory on day three, the Manxman was out of the mix in the final two stages and couldn’t repeat his 2015 general classification triumph.

But the 32-year-old leaves Dubai in good spirits, having established a foundation for the rest of the season.

“I’m pretty happy,” said the Team Dimension Data rider. “Like today (stage five), the team were wicked there. Actually I lost [Mark] Renshaw with 1km to go, but apart from that, the team did exactly what I asked them to do and were on spot on. You see the difference from the first stage, so I’m very, very happy.”

Cavendish will remain in the region as he now turns his attention to the Tour of Oman, which begins Tuesday, before competing in his beloved Tour of Abu Dhabi, staged from February 21-25.

The events will serve to build up his fitness ahead of his ultimate goal of notching more stage victories at the Tour de France in July.

“I’m going to Oman to get the workload in really. Abu Dhabi is the big target [for the Middle East],” Cavendish said. “It would be nice to win in Oman, but…

“It wasn’t originally on my calendar, but it would be the same workload as home anyway, I just miss the traveling so I might as well stay.”