Happy New Year from Team Sky

In a new blog to kick off 2016, Team Sky Team Principal Sir Dave Brailsford looks ahead to the coming season.

From everyone at Team Sky I want to say Happy New Year to all our friends and supporters wherever you may be. 

2015 was a happy year for Team Sky, but our approach to our sport is always about looking forward not back and I am confident 2016 can be even better. 

We had a bit of time off - not much though - over Christmas but either side we are working hard with the riders and the rest of the team in our superb Majorca training base. 

And after my brief stint as Santa Claus at the team Christmas party I am now back in full on work mode making sure we do everything we need to do to prepare and get us ready to meet more big challenges in the coming season. The better we do in one year, the more we want to achieve the next. That is the only way we know and it is what makes us just as excited today as when the whole Team Sky journey began. 

You may remember that last year we set out our 2020 Vision for Team Sky, and at the heart of it the goal of becoming indisputably and consistently the greatest cycling team in the world - and to be viewed as one of the best sports teams in the world. I think we are well down that track. 

But to maintain the momentum 2016 must be our most successful year ever, on and off the bike.   

Every year we like to set ourselves tough and ambitious targets and 2016 will be no different. In the next two weeks we will outline exactly what we want to achieve and I can promise you that they are a set of objectives to excite any cycling team and any cycling fan. I firmly believe we have the team to deliver excellent results this season, so watch this space.

The more we have achieved the more we have been put in a position of leadership in the sport more generally. We welcome the extra pressure and responsibility that comes with that. Because at the same time as meeting the main goal of winning bike races, we will continue to play a leadership role in moving the great sport of cycling forward to a brighter future - innovating, riding clean and winning clean.

There is also a wider passion that motivates us all at Team Sky. I cannot tell you what a difference it makes when we see our supporters out on the road - whether cyclists sharing the road when we are out training, and they wear the same gear and give us a great welcome, or from fans lining the routes of the great races we exist to win. We want more people to become fans of the sport and also to fall in love with the bike. In that way cycling can become a force for good in their own lives. Of course our job is to win the big races. But we also know there is a cycling revolution going on in many countries of the world, not least the UK. Everyone at Team Sky is proud to be part of it. And as the New Year begins, in this new era for our sport, we just can't wait to get racing again. 

Happy New Year!

Sir Dave Brailsford