Double Olympic gold medallist Ed Clancy has not been selected to compete in the team sprint at this month's track world championships and has shelved his ambition in the discipline.
Clancy has focused on the event and a partial conversion to the Great Britain sprint squad since winning a second consecutive team pursuit gold - in world record time - at the London Olympics, as well bronze in the men's omnium.
British Cycling is set to announce its line-up for the Belarus world titles tomorrow but Clancy will not feature as its ‘man three' as he refocuses on endurance events as well as the road with Rapha Condor JLT.
"It's not my job to tell you who has been [selected] but I can tell you I haven't been for the team sprint, which is what I was going for," the 27-year-old said at Saturday's Revolution finale at the Sir Chris Hoy velodrome in Glasgow.
"Straight after the Olympics, I fancied opening another door. Ideally, I wanted to go to Rio to do team sprint and team pursuit, if the schedule fitted.
"The truth is, this season at least, I didn't really make any progress. It was always going to be hard off the back of Olympic form - and I was going well at the Olympics, sprint-wise and endurance-wise - to raise my game there. But I thought after a few months of specific sprint training we might make some progress. It wasn't a case of me going particularly badly, I just didn't move on. There were a couple of guys in the team that had real good form.
"I started the journey with loads of enthusiasm, thinking, ‘Yeah we can do this, we can do it this time. I've only got to put another 200 or 300 watts on the start, knock a couple of tenths off here or there.' It all sounded... not easy but doable.
"It has been disheartening. I've worked quite hard for a few months and have gained nothing in those areas but I don't feel like I've lost much in other areas."
Clancy showed his versatility at Revolution - its first foray away from Manchester- winning his series fourth flying lap plus the madison time trial, with James McCallum, and points race.
Read the full article in Cycling Weekly magazine, out tomorrow, February 7, for just £2.99
Huge savings on these Black Friday Garmin deals with up to 33% off wearables and 47% off Garmin Tacx turbo trainers
London e-bike sharing scheme investigated over 'free' claims
