The Guardian - Mark Cavendish: On top of the world

British look to build on golden foundation

William Fotheringham, Saturday 26 March 2005

Several more British medals are likely this weekend, starting early this morning when Chris Hoy defends his world title in the kilometre time trial, with the Sydney Olympic champion Jason Queally a strong bet for the podium as well, writes William Fotheringham .

The mens 4,000 metres individual pursuit will see Rob Hayles attempt to improve on his silver in last years world championships and Jamie Staff will attempt to defend his world title in the keirin sprint event.

Later today Britains team pursuiters take to the track; unlike the team sprinters they are still waiting for a gold medal in a major championship after coming close several times since making their initial breakthrough in Sydney. In Athens they took the silver medal to Australia and in Melbourne last year in the world title series they were again runners-up.

Tomorrow British eyes will be on Hayles, whose heroic recovery from a crash in Athens to take bronze in the Madison relay event captured the nations hearts. With Hayless regular partner Bradley Wiggins racing on the road this season - this weekend he rides the Critrium International two-day event in the Ardennes - his new partner is Mark Cavendish, one of four youngsters from the under-23 academy being blooded in this weeks championships.

Britains track cyclists bask in gold glory

William Fotheringham, Tuesday 29 March 2005

The sports minister Richard Caborn yesterday hailed the Great Britain cycling teams performance at the world track championships in Los Angeles after a fourth gold, for Rob Hayles and Mark Cavendish in the madison relay, put the squad on top of the medal table.

Im really pleased, we have to give credit for this to the governing body, said Caborn. Theres no doubt that theres been a major modernisation in recent years, a renaissance in the sport.

There was further praise from Peter Keen, the coach who founded the lottery-funded cycling system that began to produce a string of medals in the Sydney Olympics. Whichever way you look at it, currently Britain is the top nation in track cycling, he said.

As well as making this Britains most successful world championships, the madison gold broke new ground for the team: at 19, Cavendish is Britains youngest senior track world champion, while he and Hayles are Britains first medallists in this discipline at a world championships.

Their success followed gold medals for the team sprint trio of Chris Hoy, Jason Queally and Jamie Staff in Thursdays opening session, and further golds on Saturday in the womens sprint for Victoria Pendleton and the team pursuit for Hayles, Chris Newton, Steve Cummings, Paul Manning and Ed Clancy. There were also silver and bronze for Queally and Hoy in Fridays kilometre time-trial.

Nuyens wins but London triumphs

William Fotheringham, Monday 5 September 2005 01.28 BST

The massive crowds on the one-mile circuit round Whitehall that formed a grand finale to the Tour of Britain yesterday was hailed by the mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, as showing that the capital is open for major public events in the wake of the bombings on July 7.

The turn-out at the race is bigger than last year and that is a sign that people are coming back to London, he said.

The mayor also sees the Tour of Britain as a crucial step in the capitals campaign to stage the start of the 2007 Tour de France, the venue for which is due to be announced in early October, and a possible London formula one grand prix.

We need all the practice we can get in staging major events. If we win [the right to host] the Grand Dpart in London, two million people will come here from all over Europe to watch and it will transform perceptions of the sport.

Livingstone also called for the national tours final stage to be given live coverage. It is a mistake that it is not broadcast live on television. I hope that next year, if we can win the right to stage the Tour, that will change.

On the road the weekend belonged to the Belgian Quick- Step team who won both yesterdays criterium, with their Italian sprinter Luca Paolini, and Saturdays time-trial in Birmingham, with their 25-year-old Belgian Nick Nuyens, who also took the overall title after leading since Tuesdays opening stage in Scotland.

Nuyens confirmed on Saturday that he was the strongest rider in the race by beating the Dane Michael Blaudzun - on paper the better time-triallist - by some 0.75sec to clinch the second and most prestigious professional stage race of his career, with Blaudzun eight seconds in arrears.

Its been a really hard week, the stage with Snake Pass [on Thursday] was tough and Saturday was not easy either, he said. Today the stage was fast, the circuit was small and, if there had been attacks, it would have been difficult. But we kept the pace so high that no one could escape. It was the perfect race for us.

For the Great Britain team the stage was less than perfect in spite of Roger Hammonds fine third place, close on the heels of Paolini and last years stage winner here Enrico Degano of Italy. The young British sprinter Mark Cavendish, who took the amateur race on this circuit last year, was their appointed leader for the day but he finished bloodied and demoralised after a crash with two laps to go.

One of the Barloworld riders did his turn on the front, he was falling back and wasnt looking where he was going, he slowed down for the corner and panicked and took out my front wheel, said the 20-year-old. I was well up for it today, Roger [Hammond] had me securely up there, I was on Paolinis wheel and it was going to be about me and him.

He has time on his side, said Hammond, consoling his young team-mate. With the backing of Livingstone, and with British regions remaining keen to stage next years event, the same can probably be said of the revived national tour.

Cooke hopes world championship silver will be springboard for Commonwealth gold

William Fotheringham, Monday 26 September 2005

A silver medal in the womens world road race championship in Madrid on Saturday has left the Commonwealth Games champion Nicole Cooke optimistic about the defence of her title next spring in Melbourne.

I have always gone strong in the spring so my form should be all right, the 22-year-old Welshwoman told the British Cycling website. I am quite fresh mentally and physically. Id like to go through the winter now training consistently because I dont need time off. I just need to carry on gently and not go berserk.

In the under-23 event another prospect for Melbourne, the 20-year-old Manxman Mark Cavendish, finished a promising 14th, leading in the main field on the heels of a chasing group which finished 34sec behind the winner, Dmytro Grabovskyy of the Ukraine.