Wiggins refutes suggestion of "cracks appearing " within British Cycling

It might not be a full blown war of words but the recently reported exchange of views between former British Cycling teammates Jamie Staff and Bradley Wiggins have been fairly testy.

Staff, who has been appointed head of the American track sprint programme told the  Velonation website that he believes the British Cycling track team’s prospects for the London Olympics have been compromised as performance director Dave Brailsford concentrates his efforts elsewhere. In addition to his role with British Cycling, Brailsford is also the team principal of the Team Sky road team.

“With Dave Brailsford's attention turned to the road, I think it's having an effect on the track team. You need a leader,” double Olympic gold medallist Staff said.

“If your leader goes off and leads something else, you get consequences. At the end of the day it comes down to the riders obviously, but having someone to lead the army is the key. It gives the rider the belief they have the backing.

“If you remove that and the riders feel like they are on their own, then cracks can appear. I see some cracks appearing!”

Those comments eventually saw a response from Bradley Wiggins who yesterday told the BBC: "It's a load of rubbish to be honest. Jamie has now gone to the American job and I think a lot of it is tongue-in-cheek, winding up, mind games now.

"Dave [has] done a great job. We're bang in the middle of two Olympic Games and this is the important time, the next two years, and the medal haul at the Olympic Games. Until that happens people can't really criticise.

"These are just rumours and myths that have been put out there but no-one actually knows the facts of what he's actually doing and that's half the trouble of these things. Cycling is booming and the bigger it gets the more criticism it seems to get, which is a shame, because we are doing so well at the moment."