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Now Mark Cavendish joins BBC
SUPPORT: The Coole family were so keen to back Cav, they dressed as their hero at the Southern Agricultural Show. PHOTO: John Maddrell JM120728 (157).
AFTER Saturday’s bitter disappointment in the Olympic road race, it’s onwards and upwards for Laxey’s resilient cycling star Mark Cavendish.
The straight-talking Manxman isn’t shying away from the Games, with plans to join the BBC commentary team today (Thursday) for track cycling coverage.
Cav’s hopes of becoming the first Manxman to win a gold medal at the Olympics since rower Sidney Swann in 1912 were dashed on Saturday afternoon as he missed out on victory in cycling’s road race.
Although pre-race favourite to claim Great Britain’s first gold of the London Games, his bid for victory ended in disappointment as Kazakhstan veteran Alexandre Vinokourov won despite the five-man GB team looking strong for the majority of the race.
Cav eventually finished 29th after his GB team-mates failed to reel in a late breakaway in the 250km race.
Vinokourov sprinted clear of Colombia’s Rigoberto Uran in the final stages to take victory on The Mall.
Norway’s Alexander Kristoff took bronze.
Tweeting on Twitter just hours after the race, Cav admitted he was ‘gutted’ but paid tribute to the GB team, who had been so desperate to help him over the line in first place.
‘My guys were INCREDIBLE & there was nothing more we could do. Victims of our own success,’ he wrote.
In another Tweet he referred to team mates Bradley Wiggins, David Millar, Chris Froome and Ian Stannard as ‘heroes’. ‘Rode, with the weight of a nation, until exhaustion,’ he continued. ‘So proud.’
He went on to praise the support from British fans: ‘Also, very proud to be British today. The support along the whole 250km was beyond belief. Absolutely incredible. Thank you to everyone.’
Addressing criticism from some quarters about his comments in a post-race TV interview, Cav Tweeted: ‘Can’t understand how me saying yesterday that we couldn’t have done any more, but I feel other teams could have, is “blaming” other nations.’
But by Monday he was clearly in good enough spirits to cheer on the women’s team in their road race, where Team GB’s Lizzie Armitstead took silver. He praised her efforts, adding a tongue-in-cheek: ‘Maybe I should ask her for some tips...’
On Tuesday came the announcement on Twitter that he’d be joining the BBC commentary team from today.
BBC studio anchor Gary Lineker called the move ‘great news’.
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Weather for Isle of Man
Saturday 25 May 2013
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 7 C to 13 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 13 C
Wind Speed: 23 mph
Wind direction: South
