Cycling news - Wiggins: 'Really disappointed' Mark Cavendish should not be snubbed for Olympics

ByEurosport

Updated 23/03/2020 at 14:41 GMT

Bradley Wiggins has expressed his frustration that former team-mate Mark Cavendish is not in Team GB's Olympic plans in the latest episode of his Eurosport podcast.

Mark Cavendish and Bradley Wiggins

Image credit: Getty Images

Speaking with presenter Graham Willgoss and guest Adam Blythe in the latest edition of The Bradley Wiggins Show, available now on all major podcast platforms, the legendary British cyclist revealed that he had spoken to the 34-year-old and that he was not happy.

Wiggins, Britain's most decorated Olympian, is frustrated that his former Team GB team-mate is not seemingly in the current plans for the 2020 Games and believes it is a bad oversight.

Cycling

Cavendish set to return from illness at Tour of Turkey as Tour de France preparation continues

a day ago

Wiggins said he felt Cavendish still has a great deal to offer and has been unfairly ignored in the plans for the Tokyo Olympics.

"I have spoken to him a few times, the only thing he is really disappointed about at the moment is that he hasn’t been selected for the Olympic Games and he feels that quite heavily, he qualified for the spot and somehow they’ve worked in to a position where they haven’t picked him,” Wiggins said on the podcast.

He’s pretty p***ed off about it, he always feels like he’s got something to prove and he feels like he’s been fighting the tide since he’s started with British Cycling.

"He feels like he’s got something to prove, that he’s not a natural selection like me, where they would twist certain parameters or rules to include me, he’s always felt that he’s never had that benefit, that he’s always had to come in the hard way.

"He’s always put it down to the fact that the team pursuit are given priority, and I think there’s an element of truth to that."

Get season 3 episode 2 on your platform of choice

Besides simply his talent and pedigree as a rider, Wiggins said Cavendish would offer so much more to the other Team GB competitors.

"I would have sent him to Tokyo because he’s tried and tested and when you speak about having big players at the Olympic Games, Cav would have been the team captain of that squad," Wiggins added.

"Can you imagine some of those younger riders, just having him around would have benefited them so much.

"It’s like in 2012, when they were arguing about whether to send David Beckham to the Olympics or to the World Cup, sometimes a presence is enough.

"To have someone like Cav around would have been invaluable to the whole squad, just having Cav in those apartments, it shouldn’t be underestimated. It’s Mark Cavendish, one of the biggest names in cycling."