A TOP cycling coach suffered catastrophic brain damage when a drink driver knocked him off his bike.

Simon Doughty now needs round-the-clock care following the crash in east Manchester.

Prosecutors estimate John Bowman, 20, from Newton Heath, was more than twice the drink-drive limit when he hit Mr Doughty, 46.

The senior coach and education officer with British Cycling broke a leg and his pelvis and suffered irreversible brain damage from a head injury.

He is now virtually wheelchair-bound, with serious problems reading and writing.

Mr Doughty, a former manager of the Great Britain women's road cycling team, was in hospital for eight months.

He was hit as he cycled to work at Manchester Velodrome.

At Manchester Crown CourtBowman admitted dangerous driving. Judge Iain Hamilton jailed him for 18 months, with a further six months for breaking an anti-social behaviour order.

But Bowman has already spent 270 days behind bars and could be free in three months.

Senseless

Judge Hamilton, who called his driving selfish and senseless, told Bowman, of Assheton Road, : "No sentence this court can pass could in any way restore the quality of the victim's life which has been destroyed forever."

The judge said the tragedy was probably caused by a combination of rain, a lack of driving experience and drink.

He also said Bowman could also have been distracted by friends drinking and listening to music in the back of the car.

"But you should not have thought about driving," he said. "You knew you should not have been driving."

Mr Doughty, wearing a safety helmet and high-visibility clothes, was riding his bike on Bradford Road away from Manchester on October 26, 2006 when he was hit by the VW Golf Bowman was driving as it tried to overtake.

The bike was thrown 100ft through the air and Bowman, who did not own the car, sped off before abandoning it later.

But he was later arrested and admitted drinking eight or nine cans of lager the previous night.

A breath-test showed he was under the limit but Adam Watkins, prosecuting, said a calculation revealed that at the time of the crash he could have been at least twice the limit.

Barry Grennan, defending said Bowman had slept for five hours after stopping drinking and believed he was under the limit.

He said Bowman had only got behind the wheel of the car because a friend, who had offered to drive, was drunk.

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