A cycling champ in hail at sea (4)
I believe the answer is:
ahoy
'hail at sea' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'a cycling champ' is the wordplay.
'cycling champ' becomes 'hoy' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'a'+'hoy'='AHOY'
'in' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for ahoy that I've seen before include "Mariner's challenge" , "Nautical call for attention" , "Sailor's shout for attention" , "Hullo, sailor!" , "Nautical shout" .)