Motivation is a key impacting factor on winter training, particularly when it comes to getting the miles in when conditions are less than ideal.

Goal setting is, therefore, an important tool in keeping spirits high and, where opportunity presents itself, pushing yourself too.

Team Sky, for example, will have riders on the track this winter – with Peter Kennaugh and Elia Viviani among those who regularly return to the boards.

Ellingworth explains: “I always think, to stay motivated, you have to expect the need to get your head down on those dark nights and everything else.

“You can help by setting goals for the following year and getting an early goal in – be that a long training ride or a sportive event, but one which takes place very early in the year.

“That’s what drives you. Nobody is motivated without goals. If you are approaching a sportive and you know it is going to be 100 miles, then you know you need to start getting the miles up. That’s where your motivation should lie really.

“The track is a useful tool for those who have the chance to use it too, as another way to stay motivated is through challenging yourself through your training.

“Gone are the days of just setting those steady goals and working through them. For a lot of our guys we try to keep the intensity high during the winter because the closer they are to their full intensity, the easy it is to up the volume again when they need to.

“If you just switch off totally for a few months, then the harder it is to get back up to those levels.

“I think it’s quite important for the full-time guys to keep that intensity so they are only ever a small percentage away from it, [which is why you will see riders like Pete Kennaugh and Ben Swift on the track].”