Nicolas Roche is a veteran of 15 Grand Tours and he has completed all of them. The Irishman on Team Sky is considering attempting to ride all three in 2016, after he was a late addition to Sky’s Giro long list, with the nine-man roster being released tomorrow.

“The Giro isn’t usually a race that I’ve targeted because normally I go better in the heat and we know that the Giro goes through a few miserable days. I’ve gone more for the Vuelta in the past but why not the Giro this time? I’d like to go for it and I’ll know more on Monday,” Roche told Cyclingnews.

Roche says he wants to try the triple to do something new, having ridden the Tour every year since 2008 and put some strong rides in at the last few Vuelta a Espanas.

“I know what works for me and I’ve been doing the same year after year and it’s great that I go well in the Vuelta but now I think I’ve caught up and I’ve done some really good work to get back to a decent level so why not,” he said. “When the team talked to me initially I thought that it might be tight for the Giro but the next few days I thought, fair enough, I’ll keep it in the back of my mind and then you can tell me if I’m going. Mentally I’m ready to go to the Giro and at a good level.”

Roche says he would like to split up the three Grand Tours with rides in San Sebastian and the Olympics, but riding the three biggest stage races in cycling in one year is really important to Roche.

“My ideal programme would be Giro, then the Tour, I’d really like to do that, then in an ideal world San Sebastian, Olympics, and then the Vuelta. I know I can do two grand tours and I’ve never done three. I know there’s a long way to go but why not?”