Cavendish vowed after returning medalless from Beijing 2008 that he would never again return to the boards. But the 30 year-old admits now that he would like another tilt at that elusive Olympic medal - the only notable omission on his groaning CV - even if he is remaining coy on just how much he wants it.
On the evidence of the last three days, Cavendish has a good chance of travelling. Clancy, the Olympic bronze medallist in the omnium, is clearly the favourite for the one omnium spot, not least because the Yorkshireman is also arguably Britain's strongest team pursuit rider and whoever rides omnium will also have to be part of GB's pursuit squad.
Cavendish, if selected, would likely be 'fifth man' in the team pursuit, meaning he would have to do a certain amount of team pursuit training with the rest of the squad. That would not be easy with his road commitments but Heiko Salzwedel, GB's endurance coach, is clear that the team pursuit is his priority and nothing will be allowed to hurt the team's chances in that.
"The preferred option is Ed Clancy as he is also the strongest guy in the team pursuit," Salzwedel said. "The team pursuit is still our priority event. There are too many uncontrollables in the omnium. The team pursuit is controllable and we will not make any sacrifices. But who can tell me that Cavendish is not capable of doing what Pete Kennaugh did in 2012?"
Kennaugh's late decision to devote himself to the track saw the Manx rider help Britain to team pursuit gold in 2012 and Salzwedel believes Cavendish is capable of doing the same thing, but only if he fully commits.
"He needs to move to Manchester, he needs to train with the squad," the German said. "But he could do it if he wanted. He has told me he will do whatever it takes. He is 100 per cent committed. He is getting stronger and faster."
Off the back of just two weeks training on the track, Cavendish was impressive at Derby's brand new velodrome. Lying third overnight, the Manx Missile lifted himself into second place in the six-discipline event on Sunday, and encouragingly he appeared to get stronger as the weekend wore on.
Cavendish finished with a strong points race and less than an hour later won a crowd-pleasing Madison with his old team-mate Sir Bradley Wiggins, seven years after they won the world title together.
"The last time we rode together he had just won four stages in his first Tour and I hadn't even got over a railway bridge in a race, and look at what's happened in between," said Wiggins who added that he would like to see Cavendish commit not only to the omnium but also the team pursuit.
"I'd love to see Cav in Rio," he said. "We'd love to see him doing the team pursuit. But his thing is the Tour - that's his bread and butter.
He's still not ready to let go of that. Maybe in Tokyo 2020 [he will ride team pursuit] but I think he still has unfinished business with the Tour. The omnium sort of fits with having to do the Tour although he might have to be part of the team pursuit squad to do that."
Cavendish's situation is complicated by the fact that he is out of contract at Etixx-QuickStep at the end of the year. He will almost certainly move on from the Belgian team - various options have been mooted including MTN Qhubeka, Trek and Tinkoff-Saxo - but whoever he signs for it is understood that he will try to leave himself enough leeway to qualify for the Olympics.
Not that he was admitting to anything quite so concrete on Sunday.
"I'm very happy, very encouraged," he said. "Finishing second behind an Olympic bronze medallist was a good achievement. But I've just done this to give me a chance of riding in the World Cup this winter [you need a certain amount of qualification points to race in the UCI World Cup events]. This was just to keep my options open.
"It would be nice to have an Olympic medal as a British athlete [though]. Just to stop you all banging on about it to be fair."
Away from the omnium selection debate, it was a successful weekend for British riders. Among the highlights, Wiggins led the GB men's pursuit squad to a superb time of 3:54.974sec on Friday night, just a few seconds outside world record pace, putting in some big turns on the front. Double Olympic champion Laura Trott beat the Belgian Jolien D'Hoore in the women's omnium.
Jason Kenny won the men's keirin, beating GB team mate Lewis Oliva in a photo finish, while Katy Marchant won the women's event as Becky James continued her return from injury.
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