Alex Dowsett hopes to beat Chris Froome to GB's only time trial place at Rio 2016

While everybody is wondering whether Chris Froome can do the treble of Tour de France, Olympic time trial and road race, Alex Dowsett is harbouring desires to derail the Team Sky rider's plans.

Great Britain can only select one rider for the time trial in Rio this August, after both Dowsett and Steve Cummings failed to finish in the top-10 at the World Championships in Richmond.

Froome is the clear favourite to gain that one berth given the hilly nature of the time trial course in Rio, but Dowsett isn't giving up hope of dethroning him before the Games.

How to beat long time trials

"It will be super-difficult to get picked for the Olympics," he told Sky Sports at the Dubai Tour. "Of course, I'm not ruling it out, but I really have to pull everything out of the bag to even be in the mix for selection.

"That is why I have asked Movistar if I can do the Giro this year, because I feel if I can do what I did in 2013 and win the long time trial there, and perhaps be competitive in the 10km prologue also, then that should give the selection committee a few headaches.

"The long time trial seems to be up my street. I'll head out beforehand and recce it, for sure."

At the Giro he could come up against Tom Dumoulin, who Dowsett believes will be favourite for the undulating Rio race. The Giro features three individual time trials: a 10km test on stage one, a rolling 40.4km one on stage nine and then a mountain trial up Alpe di Siusi on stage 15 - the last two occurring before rest days.

Movistar's team leader for the Italian Grand Tour is likely to be Alejandro Valverde, who will target the road race at the Olympics.