Harris dreaming of Rio place

Harris finished fifth at the 2016 World Cyclo-cross Championships but has signed a one-year contract with the Boels-Dolmans team to combine cyclo-cross with road racing.

That is with the aim of being selected for the upcoming Olympic Games and riding in support of Armitstead as the London 2012 silver medallist tries to go one better in the 2016 road race in Brazil.

Harris – who competed on the road and the track at the 2006 Commonwealth Games –knows her Olympic dreams are far from certain to become a reality but is doing everything in her power to make them so.

"The Olympics is a real objective, but there's a lot of time to go before I'll have a sense of how possible it is," the 29-year-old told British Cycling.

"Olympics or not, I want to use my 'cross form and go into the early races on the road being able to contribute to the team.

"It gives myself and the team an idea of what type of rider I will be on the road and whether I'm capable of doing the job Lizzie would need me to do come the Olympics.

"Results come from a lot of hard work and I think you have days when everything seems to go right and fall into place and that's the time you really have to go out and grab the results you can.

"Other days, things don't quite go to plan and you don't get the result you want but that's part of racing."

Sportsbeat 2016