Kennaugh reels off the list of his achievements on the road in that second four-year cycle with pride, swatting aside suggestions his career has plateaued after a blistering start.

This will be his eighth season with Team Sky, the only professional team he has ridden for – making him one of the four British riders, along with Chris Froome, Geraint Thomas and Ian stannard, to have remained with Sir Dave Brailsford’s team from the start.

And with his current contract up at the end of the season, Kennaugh is keen to prove what he can give for the team once the 2017 season gets underway.

“You get a lot of people asking what your goals are for the next season, but as a pro now – especially at Team Sky – you have to turn up to each race the best you can,” Kennaugh tells RCUK.

“I don’t think my career’s leveled off at all,” says Kennaugh. “If you look up until 2013, what did I do? On the road, all I’d done was ride the Tour de France – I’d not won a race.”

It is, of course, a valid retort. Twelve months later and Kennaugh had won five, taking a stage win and the overall title at both the Coppi e Bartali and Tour of Austria, alongside claiming the national champion’s jersey.

While in the jersey, he then went on to win his first WorldTour race – the opening stage of the 2015 Criterium du Dauphine – before earning a second year in the blue, white and red stripes of British champion a week later.

Last year started with more success as national champion, this time in Australia as Kennaugh won the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race before taking a stage win, and second overall behind team-mate Froome, at the Herald Sun Tour.

But for the broken collarbone that followed, and then an ill-timed injury at the Vuelta a Espana at the end of the year, we may well have been talking about a first top-ten Grand Tour finish for Kennaugh.

After leading home Team Sky in the opening stage team time trial and pulling on the red leader’s jersey for the first time as a result, Kennaugh was well-placed overall before a series of unfortunate events curtailed his charge for the top ten on the same day Froome’s hopes of overall victory were also dismissed.

Kennaugh picks up the story. “It was the best Grand Tour I’ve ridden,” he says. “I was 15^th, only a couple of minutes off the top ten, and then unfortunately got a really bad haemorrhoid.

“I had to have it literally operated on, sat on the bus before the stage – there was blood everywhere, it was one of the most unpleasant experiences of my life, and that was the stage where it went full gas from the start and Froome lost all that time.”

Kennaugh was actually the last man home on that now infamous stage, where more than half of the peloton finished outside the time cut and were only allowed to continue at the race jury’s discretion.

“Unfortunately it panned out that way, but I was generally happy with my Vuelta, and I think I’ll be stronger this year,” Kennaugh says.

When we speak, the 27-year-old’s targets for the new season have not been outlined, though he was hoping for a crack at the Tour of California and other shorter stage races before another starting berth at the Vuelta.

Should he do so, it would be an eighth Grand Tour start and Kennaugh admits he has been on a steep learning curve in cycling’s three-week races.

“With Grand Tours, I used to mentally crack,” he admits. “With it being so intense, I’d just reach a certain point in the race and think ‘I’m not up for this today, I just want to get through and have a mental day off’.

“With Grand Tours, I used to mentally crack… as I’ve got older, I cope with things better”

“As I’ve got older – I don’t know if it’s experience – I cope with things better. Stage 12 is stage 12. Four years ago, I’d have thought ‘bloody hell, stage 12 – there’s still such a long way to go’, but now it’s just another stage.

“You start, you clock on, concentrate for the stage and then clock off. It’s easier to mentally digest now, I guess.”

Also set to target the Vuelta a Espana, once again, is Chris Froome, who will also bid for a third consecutive Tour de France win, and fourth in all.

Froome has finished in the top two in seven of the last eight Grand Tours he has started, while only Mark Cavendish and Chris Boardman have more pro wins to their name on the all-time British list.

But, while Froome’s achievements on the road mark him as one of this generation’s finest riders, Kennaugh says there are no airs or graces when it comes to riding with the 31-year-old – another Team Sky mainstay since their 2010 inception.

“Froome’s Froome to us guys. He’s one of the lads, do you know what I mean?” Kennaugh says.

“That’s what makes him so great. He’s not a prima donna, he doesn’t put himself on a pedestal. He’s just so down to earth, so grounded, and you can speak to him like every other person.

“It makes him such an easy leader, and easy to be around. In turn, that makes you want to give everything to him.”

“What I’ve had to learn is not one mould fits everyone,” Kennaugh admits. “If I train like Froome, I’d probably only be half the rider he is. I need to feel fresher at races [to get the most out of myself].

“It’s also learning, as you get older, what you need – you have to do what’s best for you, and not get sucked into trying to copy others.

“I think that’s where having my brother Tim coach me has helped in this last year. It’s someone out of Sky, so some different ideas and not getting sucked into what the other Sky riders are doing.”

“There will come a point when I realise I’ve reached my level, and that’s it, but at the moment I feel I’ve still got more I can give”

Kennaugh adds: “I’m still young myself. I’m only 27 and still have a lot to learn. I don’t know how much further I can progress. I’m just going to keep pushing it as far as I can.

“It comes down to enthusiasm and motivation. People retire in the mid-30s, so I’ve got eight years left. There will come a point when I realise I’ve reached my level, and that’s it, but at the moment I feel I’ve still got more I can give.

“Until I feel I reach a level where I can’t give anymore, I’m going to keep pushing those boundaries.”

Another four-year cycle is underway, and while Kennaugh’s success is no longer measured by Olympic performance, by the time 2020 rolls around the upward trajectory of his career could well have reached the heights first suggested by Ellingworth back in 2013.

With a palmares already worth boasting about already, and a burning desire to achieve even more, 2017 could be a big year for Kennaugh.