WHEN Mark Cavendish powers up the Mall in the Olympic road race, as Sir Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton step out beneath the bright lights of the velodrome and Bradley Wiggins, fresh from Tour de France glory, goes up against the clock around the streets of Surrey in the time trial, there will be a single common thread that binds them all: David Brailsford.
As British Cycling's performance director, Brailsford is the man credited with turning around the country's fortunes on the track, road, in BMX and mountain biking. In pop-culture terms, he is perhaps the sport's equivalent of Simon Fuller, the svengali figure who propelled the Spice Girls to global fame.
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