Gloucester rower Alex Gregory says he is “itching to get going” as the Rio 2016 Olympic racing season finally begins after a gruelling winter of training.

Gregory is back in the GB Rowing Team men’s four – the boat in which he famously won Olympic gold at London 2012 – for the European Championships, taking place in Brandenburg, Germany from May 6-8.

He is joined in a formidable-looking crew by Moe Sbihi, George Nash and Constantine Louloudis – they, like Gregory, have all won three successive World Championship titles in differing boats.

And Gregory is excited to see what they can achieve during this massive season, saying the Europeans will provide the perfect platform to start building towards this summer’s Olympic Games.

“It’s been pretty much six months of trialing, training and testing but finally we are in the racing season and I’m really looking forward to getting out there in Germany and testing out what we can do,” he said.

“It’s an early indicator of potentially what could happen later on in the year at the Olympics and I’m itching to get going.

“The World Champions from last year are the Italians and it’s really good that we get to race them at the Europeans as we’ll get an early idea of where we are compared to them. That will be the first marker, to see whether we are slower or faster than them and what we have to do in terms of that.

“I am really excited to be racing alongside the three guys I’ve been selected with. As a heavyweight men’s team we are incredibly strong, I could be in any boat and I’d be pleased with it, but Moe, George and Stan are pretty strong athletes on and off the water so it is very exciting to imagine what we might be able to do this year.”

Gregory, from Wormington, was last in the four in 2014 alongside Sbihi, Nash and Andrew T Hodge. Victory in the Europeans in Belgrade set them on their way to an outstanding unbeaten season and they will be looking to make an equally strong start this time round.