Chris Froome has revealed he may bid to win an unprecedented treble consistingTour de France, Olympic road race and Olympic time trial in 2016. Great Britain coach Rod Ellingworth was recently present in Brazil with the Team Sky leader to do a recon of the Olympic road and time trial courses.

Interviewed by Cyclingnews, Elingworth gives more details. "It was good for Chris to have a look and get his head around what it’s like there. He was keen to have a look and he rode the road and the time trial course but obviously the time trial course is part of the road course anyway. You kill two birds with one stone there and then on Saturday we rode the finishing circuit for the road race.

"From what we say from the test event, it’s going to be a climber’s sort of race. There’s a good 4,000 plus metres of climbing. The conditions are a little unsure when it comes to distance with some different information out there but it’s around 250 kilometres. Both the time trial and road race will be tough going, who has now seen the course twice after attending the test event in the summer."

In 2016, the peloton will have more days between the end of the Tour de France and the Rio Olympic event. "In 2012 the Tour finished on the Sunday and then the road race was the following Saturday whereas this time it’s the following week so there more time between the Tour and the Games and that in itself gives you a challenge. Then there’s the travel, which is different but the time difference is only a couple of hours and flights are direct. The riders are used to doing the long haul flights too and you’d be silly to get that all wrong. The main challenge is how you come out of the Tour. You are as you are so you can’t really prepare anything until the final few days of that race."

He added that winning the Tour de France will help the British rider to be in a good shape for the Olympic event. "Morale is a huge area and if you’re head is in a good place and you’ve just won the Tour then you’ll be on top of the world. That will give you strength. It could be that Chris or Geraint falls in the opening week of the Tour and then you have to look at it in a totally different way. We’ve out outlined plans but you can’t force it and you’ve got to go with the flow."