Last month, fellow cyclist Varnish called for the resignation of the entire board of British Cycling after a leaked draft report investigating claims of bullying and discrimination seemed to back up allegations she made last year against former technical director Shane Sutton.

Varnish, 26, accused Sutton of, among other things, telling her to “go and have a baby” when informing her she was being dropped from the elite programme ahead of the Rio Olympics (which he denies). Her claims led to other athletes discussing a culture of sexism in the sport, and an independent inquiry was established.

The leaked draft accused the board of “sanitising” and “reversing” the findings of an initial internal investigation into her sacking in order to protect the sport’s image.

Varnish said last month: “There needs to be changes. These people can’t be still in there if they’ve reversed facts. They can’t still be able to be on that board. There needs to be an entire overhaul.”

Read Armitstead’s full interview at theguardian.com.

Images: Rex

Cyclist Lizzie Armitstead on the sport’s culture of sexism: “They let me down big time”