Dowsett left out of Olympic squad (From Maldon and Burnham Standard)

Dowsett left out of Olympic squad

4:25pm Thursday 14th June 2012 in Ryman Division One North

BEING left out of the Team GB Olympics squad felt like a punch in the stomach for Alex Dowsett.

When the cycling team for the 2012 London Games was announced on wednesday the Maldon rider’s name wasn’t on the list of 18 athletes selected to represent Great Britain.

Dowsett had been hoping that he would be included in the men’s road race team.

But the seven who were named, which will be whittled down to five before the Games, were Mark Cavendish, Steve Cummings, Chris Froome, Jeremy Hunt, David Millar, Ian Stannard, Ben Swift and Bradley Wiggins.

The reigning British Time-Trial champion, from Cock Clarks, said: “Getting the news that I wasn’t in the team was a bit of a punch to the stomach really.”

The 23-year-old had been battling back from a broken elbow which he suffered in riding for Team Sky on the final stage of the Three Days of West Flanders race, in Belgium, at the beginning of March.

Dowsett had his final operation on May 1 to remove a metal plate that had been holding his elbow together.

He also had to battle an infection that had hampered his quick retutrn to the saddle.

Dowsett said: “I am obviously disappointed.

“But I have got another two or three Olympics in me.

“However, the games in London would have been the dream Olympics.

“It was always going to be tough to make the team.

“And unfortunately after I broke my elbow there were complications that hindered my return to racing as soon as I would have hoped.”

Dowsett had returned to competition for Team Sky in the Tour de Luxembourg, which ran from May 30 to June 3, and finished second in the national 25-mile time-trial championships at the weekend.

However, Dowsett pushed his disappointment aside to back his Team Sky team-mate World Champion Cavendish and the rest of the British team.

He added: “But I wish Mark (Cavendish) all the best in Games and hope that they go on to the business.

“I will now be taking things one race at a time and targetting the World Championships at the end of the year.”