treated really shabbily by an organisation which I have been dedicated to for six years, have won many medals for and have been a key member of the team pursuit team," complained Houvenaghel , who at 37 is very unlikely to compete at another Olympics. It emerged that Joanna Rowsell had been feeling unwell before the qualifying rounds, and Houvenaghel had been instructed to prepare herself to ride in the final. Except Rowsell was kept in and Houvenaghel never got to ride -- just an appearance in one of the qualifiers would have been enough to be awarded a medal as part of the winning team. "To not allow me to ride in a three-minute race, which I can do with my eyes closed practically, and let me pick up my Olympic gold medal was just vindictive and something which is going to take a lot of getting over." In the pursuit of success there is no room for sentimentality, British Cycling has become clinical and efficient, 'professional'. And with all that lottery and government funding at stake, so should it be. But what if Britain wasn't so dominant in the cycling events, if the medals were shared more equally amongst nations? Would the Olympics be deemed less successful? A failure even? I would hope not, and that there were more important things than our position on the medals table. Recently I've been considering winding up my racing season to concentrate on other pursuits (i.e. pursuits which might help pay