Mark Cavendish saw his dreams of claiming the rainbow jersey shattered as he dropped out of the road race at the UCI Road World Championships in Australia.
The 25-year-old Manx cycling star struggled on the two short, sharp hills on the circuit and retired with 57km to go of the 262km course.
GB team-mates David Millar and Jeremy Hunt had attempted to pace him back up to the leaders throughout, but on each climb he lost time.
Millar, who was second in the time-trial, and Hunt also failed to finish.
In all, the brutal course accounted for 79 of the 178 starters.
It was eventually won by one of Cav's big sprint rivals, Norwegian Thor Hushovd.
Cav will now head for Delhi, where he’ll compete for the Isle of Man in the road race at the Commonwealth Games.
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