By Bryn Palmer, Sydney

Chris Boardman hinted he would consider a post-retirement role helping Britain's latest crop of cycling talent follow in his own illustrious tracks after signing off his Olympics career with 11th place in the men's time trial.

The 1992 Barcelona gold medalist, who added a bronze in Atlanta four years ago, was unable to muster one last barnstorming effort in his fourth and final Games as he completed the 46.8 kilometres of the men's time trial in 59.32 minutes, nearly two minutes outside surprise winner, Russian Viacheslav Ekimov.

By his own high standards, it was a modest effort or - as he put it - "roughly respectable".

But after revealing earlier this week the medical problems he has had to contend with over the past two years, his failure to challenge the likes of Ekimov, silver medalist Jan Ullrich and Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, who took the bronze, came as no surprise to Boardman as he prepares to finish his career at the end of October.

"It is difficult to take when you have won events like this to be an also-ran," he admitted. "But I knew what was coming today.

He is unclear as to what the future holds, but he issued what amounted to an open invitation to National Performance Director Peter Keen - his coach when he won gold in '92 - to put his 14 years of accumulated know-how to good use.

"I wouldn't like to be a hanger-on," he insisted. "I wouldn't like to be there just for the sake of it.

"But I would like to be able to work within cycling, to touch it.

"I want to scale it down. I don't want to spend so much time away from home.

"I want to see a lot more of my (four) kids, because my eldest son is getting to the point where I need to be around a bit more.

"But it would be nice to stay involved. The experience I have got and the way I have approached cycling - trying to find out everything I possibly can about the physiology and everything else - I am sure I have got something to give. As to what that is, that will depend on Peter Keen."