• Leading Tour rider admits to 'detesting' Simon Jones
• Cyclist would binge on junk food when depressed
* Richard Moore
* guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 3 June 2009 21.42 BST
A coach recently acclaimed as the best in the country is heavily criticised by Mark Cavendish in the cyclist's book, Boy Racer, which is published tomorrow. Simon Jones, named coach of the year by UK Sport for his role in what was then the cycling team's best ever haul of Olympic medals at the 2004 Games in Athens, left his post as head coach at British Cycling just over two years later in circumstances that have never been explained.
But Cavendish, the 24-year old whose four stage wins in last year's Tour de France have made him the hottest property in world cycling, reveals in his book that Jones's departure followed an incident at a British team training camp in Majorca in early 2006, and a later confrontation in Perth, Australia.
On one training ride in Majorca, Cavendish, then 20, recalls that he lost contact with his team-mates on a climb and was riding alone when Jones drove alongside, wound down the window and said: "That'll teach you, eating all those chocolate bars at Christmas."
Cavendish, who admits in his book to junk-food binges when he is depressed, continues: "And then [Jones] drove off. I burst into tears. The lads asked me what was wrong, and I told them, at which point even some of them turned on [Jones]. As for me, well that was the moment when I stopped simply disliking him and started detesting him."
Later, at the training camp in Perth, Cavendish – who in the meantime had won a Commonwealth Games gold medal, and signed provisionally with the T-Mobile professional team – had another confrontation with Jones. When Jones asked him his ambitions, Cavendish responded that he wanted to win stages of the Tour de France and be world champion.
"Well, you're not hitting the numbers to do that," said Jones. The argument that followed got "louder and louder" and "poisoned an atmosphere which was already turning toxic".
Cavendish continues: "After the row I called [the British performance director] Dave Brailsford to tell him what had happened. He said we'd discuss it when I got home." When Brailsford met Cavendish, "he asked me what I thought of Simon", to which Cavendish responded: "I never want to have any contact with him again. I can say hello to him and perhaps be civil but I really can't stand the man.
"In the end, I didn't have to be civil: within a few weeks, the coaching team had 'restructured' and [Jones] left the [British Cycling] Federation."
In what is a remarkably frank memoir the Isle of Man rider repeats his criticisms of the British coaching team at the Beijing Olympics, and does not hold back in offering harsh assessments of some staff and team-mates at his current team, Columbia-High Road.
"There's a bit of controversy in it," said Cavendish of his book. "There's going to be a backlash, [but] I wanted to be frank, to be honest, and everything in it is relevant to how I progressed as a cyclist. Nothing is just put in to make someone laugh, or to **** on someone."
Brailsford, who is on holiday in Majorca, was not available for comment. Jones, now coaching group manager at the Western Australian Institute of Sport, declined to comment.
Boy Racer, by Mark Cavendish (Ebury Press), is published tomorrow
• Cyclist would binge on junk food when depressed
* Richard Moore
* guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 3 June 2009 21.42 BST
A coach recently acclaimed as the best in the country is heavily criticised by Mark Cavendish in the cyclist's book, Boy Racer, which is published tomorrow. Simon Jones, named coach of the year by UK Sport for his role in what was then the cycling team's best ever haul of Olympic medals at the 2004 Games in Athens, left his post as head coach at British Cycling just over two years later in circumstances that have never been explained.
But Cavendish, the 24-year old whose four stage wins in last year's Tour de France have made him the hottest property in world cycling, reveals in his book that Jones's departure followed an incident at a British team training camp in Majorca in early 2006, and a later confrontation in Perth, Australia.
On one training ride in Majorca, Cavendish, then 20, recalls that he lost contact with his team-mates on a climb and was riding alone when Jones drove alongside, wound down the window and said: "That'll teach you, eating all those chocolate bars at Christmas."
Cavendish, who admits in his book to junk-food binges when he is depressed, continues: "And then [Jones] drove off. I burst into tears. The lads asked me what was wrong, and I told them, at which point even some of them turned on [Jones]. As for me, well that was the moment when I stopped simply disliking him and started detesting him."
Later, at the training camp in Perth, Cavendish – who in the meantime had won a Commonwealth Games gold medal, and signed provisionally with the T-Mobile professional team – had another confrontation with Jones. When Jones asked him his ambitions, Cavendish responded that he wanted to win stages of the Tour de France and be world champion.
"Well, you're not hitting the numbers to do that," said Jones. The argument that followed got "louder and louder" and "poisoned an atmosphere which was already turning toxic".
Cavendish continues: "After the row I called [the British performance director] Dave Brailsford to tell him what had happened. He said we'd discuss it when I got home." When Brailsford met Cavendish, "he asked me what I thought of Simon", to which Cavendish responded: "I never want to have any contact with him again. I can say hello to him and perhaps be civil but I really can't stand the man.
"In the end, I didn't have to be civil: within a few weeks, the coaching team had 'restructured' and [Jones] left the [British Cycling] Federation."
In what is a remarkably frank memoir the Isle of Man rider repeats his criticisms of the British coaching team at the Beijing Olympics, and does not hold back in offering harsh assessments of some staff and team-mates at his current team, Columbia-High Road.
"There's a bit of controversy in it," said Cavendish of his book. "There's going to be a backlash, [but] I wanted to be frank, to be honest, and everything in it is relevant to how I progressed as a cyclist. Nothing is just put in to make someone laugh, or to **** on someone."
Brailsford, who is on holiday in Majorca, was not available for comment. Jones, now coaching group manager at the Western Australian Institute of Sport, declined to comment.
Boy Racer, by Mark Cavendish (Ebury Press), is published tomorrow
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