Mark Cavendish: Cyclist targets triple success in 2016

Mark Cavendish is targeting the yellow jersey in the Tour de France, an Olympic medal and victory in the World Road Championships in 2016.

The British cyclist, 30, has been training on both road and track this winter before a busy year.

"If I don't win any of them it is not a failure because they are the biggest things you can do in cycling," Cavendish told BBC Sport.

"If I won one I'd be happy but I'll try to win all three."

Cavendish, who will ride for Team Dimension Data-Qhubeka, was speaking in Manchester, where he has been training at the Velodrome.

"I've been mixing road and track," he added. "I've been doing more specific track stuff.

"I don't know how that is going to affect my road racing. I could be flying, I could be catastrophic, I could be indifferent. I don't really know - we will have to see when I get racing."

Cavendish, who is hoping to earn a place in the omnium for Great Britain at the Rio Olympics, will compete at the next round of the Track World Cup in Hong Kong on 16-17 January.

"If I don't do anything in Hong Kong you won't be talking to me about the Olympics," added Cavendish.

The Manxman has not won an Olympic medal and faces competition from Ed Clancy and Jon Dibben for the omnium place.

British track coach Heiko Salzwedel told the Times: "Cavendish has to deliver in Hong Kong, full stop. I can't think of sentiment.

"We have a luxury problem. Three world-class omnium riders fighting for one spot. It's probably easier to win the Olympics than win selection."

The Tour de France starts on 2 July with a flat stage that will suit the sprinters, and Cavendish is hoping to win that stage to claim the yellow jersey.

The Olympics start in Rio on 5 August, and the World Road Championships take place in Doha, Qatar in October.

Analysis

BBC Sport's Matt Slater:

If everything goes to plan, Mark Cavendish's 2016 could go down as one of greatest and most colourful stories in British sporting history: yellow in France (even for just a day), gold in Rio, a rainbow in Doha.

But like one of those Choose Your Own Adventure stories, there are dozens of potential endings for the British star.

Failure in the omnium in Hong Kong next week and the Olympic plot line is over. Success and it rolls on until London in March, when another make-or-break moment arrives. And that is before we think about his road campaign.

It is going to be like that all year. It should be a rollicking good read.