If he had won gold in
Beijing, this year's hero of the Tour de
France would have been on his way to becoming the greatest
British cyclist ever. But he didn't. Overshadowed by his Olympic team-mates, the outspoken sprinter says he is 'bitter' and 'distraught' - and explains why he will never return to the trackOn their way home from Beijing, our Olympic heroes were rewarded with an upgrade from British Airways; anyone with a gold or silver medal would be allocated a Club World seat, while Chris Hoy, Rebecca Adlington and Bradley Wiggins would fly in first-class. One man who, in that case, would not be turning left on to the aeroplane was Mark Cavendish. Earlier in the summer, he had been the hottest property in road cycling, following two stage wins in the Giro d'Italia and four in the Tour de France. Now the 23-year-old from the Isle of Man was the only rider out of 14 on Great Britain's track cycling team not to win a medal in the Laoshan Velodrome.
If this was a crashing fall to earth, worse was to follow. Cavendish borrowed a medal from one of his team-mates only to be stopped at check-in by a stewardess with polite words to the effect of: 'My boyfriend follows cycling and I know you didn't win that.' In the event, he was given a seat in Club, but you do wonder what was going through the mind of the sprinter - not known as one of sport's most self-effacing characters - on the nine-hour flight.