on the road, cavendish won his first stages of a "grand tour", by picking two victories in the 2008 giro d'italia. cavendish won four further stages in the 2008 tour de france, his first coming in stage 5 from cholet to châteauroux. he won again on stage 8, stage 12 and stage 13, making him the first british rider to collect four stages in a single tour. overnight, at the age of just 22, he became the "fourth most successful british professional in history", said "the independent". after stage 14, cavendish abandoned the tour to concentrate on the beijing olympics. he and team columbia manager bob stapleton agreed that riding the alps was a risk to his hopes. but cavendish, with bradley wiggins, failed to win a medal, finishing joint eighth in the madison. he was the only british track cyclist not to win a medal. following the olympics, cavendish remained angry with british cycling for not giving much attention to the madison, though chris boardman said that cavendish's professional commitments also interfered with his build up to the olympics. in november 2008, cavendish said that he had no further plans to return to track cycling.