Mark Cavendish 'very happy' with outcome of busy 2016 season

Mark Cavendish has enjoyed a successful 2016

Mark Cavendish said he was “very happy” with his season after ending it with 10 wins on the road and three medals.

The 31-year-old Manxman set himself one of the busiest schedules of his career in 2016 by targeting the Tour de France, Olympic Games and World Championships on both the road and track.

He ended up winning four stages of the Tour, a gold medal at the track worlds and silver medals at both the Olympics and road worlds.

Cavendish signs off with win

Mark Cavendish sprinted to victory on the final stage of the Abu Dhabi Tour

Speaking after concluding his road campaign with victory on the final stage of the Abu Dhabi Tour, Cavendish said: "I'm very happy with the season. I had some big targets this year and I achieved them or came very close.

"Ideally I would like to win everything I do - that's my nature - but I gave my best."

Cavendish won four stages of the Tour de France

Ten road wins is the lowest yearly return of Cavendish's professional career, but he said it was explained by the fact he has ridden only 71 days on the road, his lowest since 2007.

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He added: "If you look at the percentage of win conversions, it's actually pretty big. If I win 15 races and I do 90 days of racing, that's one in six races I win. Whereas if I only do 60 days of racing and I win 10, I still win one in six days of racing.

Cavendish also wore the yellow jersey for the first time

"The more you race, the more you win, but I didn't race that much this year, but I'm still happy with how it has gone. And to think, second in the Olympics and second in the worlds is not so bad."

After riding the London and Gent six-day track cycling events this autumn, Cavendish will turn his attention to his 2017 road season.

Cavendish won Olympic silver on the track at Rio 2016

It looks a quieter year on paper without the Olympics and two World Championships to target, but the Dimension Data rider insists it will still be a busy campaign.

He added: "Next year is not necessarily going to be quieter because I will just be doing more road racing. I owe the team a lot from what I have missed this year. It's just not going to have the demands of both road and track cycling.

"Those demands are going to be a lot easier, but it's still going to be a big old year."

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