Whatever else the new year brings for Mark Cavendish, it will not be short of challenges. The 30-year-old starts a new chapter of his road-racing career with Team Dimension Data, while there is also the small matter of targeting a first Olympic medal at the Rio de Janeiro Games.
“I’m not trying just to get a place in the team,” Cavendish tells Telegraph Sport after a training session at the Manchester Velodrome. “If I go to Rio, I want to get a result.”
It is, perhaps, exactly what you would expect from a rider who has already won almost every prize available to him. “I think an Olympic medal is the only thing missing,” he says. [As a sprinter] I can’t win the Tour de France, but I’ve pretty much won everything else that I can within my physical realm.”
Cavendish says he has no intention of simply making up the number in Rio Photo: DAVID PEARCE
“My road season starts at the end of January, so I have to get my base miles in. From 2016, I’m a Team Dimension Data rider and that must come first.”
Cavendish is targeting the six-discipline omnium in Rio, and is in a three-way race with Ed Clancy and Jon Dibben for the single place on offer.
At Manchester Velodrome, where he started out as a young Academy rider, he will be part of a Great Britain quartet that also includes Ollie Wood, Matt Gibson and Chris Latham, in a special team pursuit against Team Wiggins’ Andy Tennant, Steven Burke, Dibben and Owain Doull.
“I’ll enjoy it,” Cavendish says. “I remember when Revolution started and I’ve good memories of racing here. It’s real racing, but it’s a show event too.”
Revolution Series dates and TV details
Round five
National Cycling Centre, Manchester: January 2, 2016
TV: British Eurosport, 8.45-11pm
Round six
National Cycling Centre, Manchester: January 23, 2016
TV: British Eurosport, 9-11pm
- For more information on the Revolution Series and to buy tickets go to http://ift.tt/1dsT8iS
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