The British Olympic team’s morale remains high despite the home squad’s hopes for opening day medals being dashed, their chief insisted Sunday.
Hosts Britain were hoping to emulate their performance in the Beijing 2008 Games, where an early cycling gold helped propel the team to their best Olympics performance in a century.
The British road cycling team — containing Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins — was hoping to propel Mark Cavendish over the finish line Saturday.
But Cavendish finished 29th as their tactical decision not to join a breakaway failed to pay off.
“The mood in the camp is very good,” insisted Great Britain’s chef de mission Andy Hunt.
“Day one of course didn’t yield any medals for us but we remain absolutely confident in our objective.”
The cyclists “absolutely gave it their all; it didn’t work out and that is the nature of sport.
“This is going to be the most competitive Olympic Games ever and winning medals is going to be very, very tough.
