Cavendish: Haboured green jersey hopes at Le Tour

The 27-year-old's main aim for 2012 was to defend his green points jersey at last summer's Tour de France, but felt like those ambitions became marginalised as Bradley Wiggins went on to claim a historic yellow-jersey success.

Cavendish - who announced last month he would be joining Omega Pharma-QuickStep in 2013 -believes Team Sky could have targeted both jerseys, and understood he would be given that chance when he signed at the end of 2011.

"We didn't achieve what I thought we were setting out to achieve at the start of the season," he told The Daily Telegraph.

"Sky should have taken both jerseys. We could have done that without any risk or detriment to the yellow jersey. It's frustrating."

Cavendish, who won his only Tour green jersey last year, admitted Wiggins' success should always have been Sky's primary objective.

But while he was proud to be part of a famous summer for British cycling he suspected it would be his last with Team Sky after one of his support riders, Juan Antonio Flecha, was dropped from the Tour team.

"It was then, on the eve of the Tour, that I realised the promise I had signed to Sky on wasn't really a promise," he said.

"I was a back-up rider. At the end of the day we weren't going for the two jerseys at all.

"It wasn't a failure, and I was very proud to be part of a British yellow-jersey winning team with Brad, but it wasn't the ultimate either."