Dumb Olympic news – 'Row' as £2000 opening ceremony ticket holders denied chance to wave at Wiggo, Cav & co

Reports that British Cycling is to ban members of the Team GB cycling team from the opening ceremony of next year's London Olympics has led to media accusations that fans at the opening ceremony will be short changed. We've probably missed the boat on starting an occasional series of London 2012 nonsense news but if we're gong to build another one and try to catch up this is a good place to start…

According to Tuesday's London Evening Standard British Cycling coaches are about to follow the lead of their track and field counterparts and ban their athletes from taking part in the ceremony for fear that it will disrupt their preparations. The swimming team is also likely to be pulled from the event – meaning that 150 of the 550 strong Team GB including most of its star names would not take part in the opening ceremony.

Spectators at the ceremony, choreographed by the Oscar winning British film director Danny Boyle, will have paid up to £2,000 to be there. And it's not only those that have stumped up big money for a once in a lifetime night out that will be peeved reckons the Standard, the decision will also rankle with Lord Coe head of LOCOG the London organising committee who wants athletes to be allowed to decide whether to attend the ceremony for themselves.

While there are no doubt a lot of things to do with the 2012 Olympics to get righteously annoyed about the fact that 80,000 rich types will be denied the chance of a fleeting wave from Wiggo, Cav, or the divine Ms Pendleton, so that Team GB has a better chance of winning some medals is probably not one of them.

There's hope they might get a wave yet though. Sources we spoke to at British Cycling were keen to stress out that no final decision on the matter had been made and also pointed out that what was being suggested was standard procedure for all major games and championships and that their 'performance comes first' philosophy has always been supported by the British Olympic Association (BOA).

In a statement on the matter a British Cycling spokesman said:

“We’re at the final stages of preparations for the immediate pre-Games period, including our involvement or otherwise in the Opening Ceremony. All decisions will be based purely on performance grounds – these final days before competition are key and we won’t do anything that will undermine all the hard work the riders will have put in to get to the start line in peak condition.”

While the track cyclists have the best part of a week after the opening ceremony before they get in to action we can't help feeling that the road cyclists won't be in peak condition if they attend the ceremony – scheduled to end at 11pm on 27 July their race starts 13 hours later. London traffic being what it is Wiggo, Cav, Geraint & co would barely have time to make it back to their Surrey hotel to get changed before heading back to the Mall for the start… so it's probably best they stay away and get their heads down. Just as well they are not staying in the Olympic village or they'd get no sleep at all.

As an Olympic row this one doesn't look like it's going anywhere, surely what the Standard should have been getting exercised about is the fact we've built an Olympic Village at great expense and none of our athletes seem to be staying in it presumably for fear of not getting a good night's sleep… to be fair the track team will be staying there once their competition starts and the fireworks from the opening ceremony have stopped.