Dreams Over for British Duo As Tough Schedule Takes Its Toll

The madison is a complex event to read, given the intricacies of lap gains, points awarded and the question of which rider is "in" or "out", but it was obvious that Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish were not in the same scintillating form as when they took the gold medal at the World Championships in Manchester. Even so, Wiggins still flew out of Beijing this morning with two gold medals in his bag, and with more Olympic metal ware than any other British cyclist.

The Londoner did not seem to bid farewell to his chance of becoming an Olympic legend as a triple gold medalist until the final 25 of the 200 laps, when the pair's presence at the back of the string of cyclists whizzing round the track indicated that they were feeling the pace and probably had realized they were not going to get the better of the eventual champions, Argentina.

But the little signs were there for all to see well before: the British duo were never quite in the hunt for early points in spite of the fact that their game plan was to get in the race at once.

Just after half distance there was a particularly telling moment: a strong-looking attack went from Belgium, Germany and Spain, and Wiggins was able to do no more than hold them, where in Manchester he would have almost certainly pegged them back.

Just before he reached Cavendish to sling the Manxman into the fray, he visibly eased, as if he had had enough. Later, the pair made their single attack of the evening - a well-timed move much like the late one which won them the race in Manchester - but Wiggins was unable to accelerate with the same speed he had shown back in March, and the move fizzled out. "Going for all three is a big ask," said the endurance coach, Matt Parker. "It's ambitious and the last four days have taken too much out of Brad. He couldn't generate the leg speed with the efforts he had made since day one and he couldn't jump as he did at Manchester. If you look at the guys who got up there today, for many of them it was their only event of the Games. Mentally and physically this is a very tough event to win."

There had been fears that the pair might fall foul of other teams combining against them, but the trouble most lay in Wiggins' legs. The Olympic pursuiting program is more drawn out than that at a World Championship, with six rides for those who reach the finals of both the individual and team events rather than four at the World's, and those two rides had indeed taken their toll.

At the end, according to GB team staff, Wiggins and his partner were bitterly disappointed; Cavendish was to leave the Games as the only GB track cyclist without a medal, which would have crowned a season that has brought him four Tour de France stage wins, while Wiggins missed a unique chance at Olympic history. Neither discussed the race afterwards, but it was the facts which spoke volumes: a final placing of eighth was a bitter contrast to their golden ambitions.