Great Britain clinched three gold medals on day seven at Rio 2016, the day where Sir Bradley Wiggins cemented his status as the greatest British Olympian of all time.
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Wiggins and team-mates Ed Clancy, Owain Doull and Steven Burke broke the world record for the second race in a row to beat Australia in a thrilling final.
Wiggins celebrated with hugs for BBC Sport pundits Hoy and Sir Steve Redgrave – three Britons who have 21 Olympic medals between them – before performing an impression of British sprint cyclist Philip Hindes and sticking his tongue out during the national anthem on the podium.
Jason Kenny, as the current holder of the world and Olympic title in the men’s team sprint, rode the qualifying lap and he too set a new Olympic record in a time of 9.551.
The German team of Miriam Welte and Kristina Vogel, the reigning Olympic champions, beat the Australian pair of Anna Meares and Stephanie Morton to claim bronze. Who counts bronzes and silvers when you’ve got five golds?
The experience of Wiggins, who won gold in the event in 2008, was critical to their cause.
The medals came on what sport fans hope will be a repeat of Super Saturday from the London 2012 Olympics as track and field champions Greg Rutherford, Mo Farah and Jessica Ennis-Hill try to defend their titles later.
Rio de Janeiro (CNN) A knighthood, Britain’s first Tour de France victor – and now his country’s most decorated Olympian.
The win also continued GBs stunning start to the track cycling events in Rio 2016, following Gold in the Men’s Team Sprint on Thursday night and a world record from the Women’s Team Pursuit foursome just hours earlier. The experienced duo extended their undefeated run to an incredible five years after another imperious performance, seeing off a late surge from New Zealand’s Genevieve Behrent and Rebecca Scown, who settled for silver. I now get to be Olympic champion again – I have been one for 12 years, so I have got used to it. “It was never about that for me”.
It’s why he returned to the Olympics for one last shot at glory. This is the first Chinese gold medal – we did it.
“I can remember 16 years ago being in Sydney and seeing Steve win his fifth with Matt (Pinsent), James Cracknell and that”. That’s something to tell the kids about.
“Elinor has been supported in her career by Welsh Cycling as she progressed to the British Cycling programme, and it is a proud moment to see her achieve on the Olympic stage”.
“In some ways I realised what we were going into and that adds nerves to it. We’ve got the best team ever”.
“It means everything. I put four years of my life towards it. It wasn’t until two laps to go that I even knew where the Aussies were”, Wiggins said.
One went to horse riders Charlotte Dujardin, Carl Hester, Fiona Bigwood and Spencer Wilton in the team dressage, while Bryony Page claimed silver in the women’s trampoline final.
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The latter certainly now should be considered to be Britain’s greatest cyclist which, in itself, is a huge call considering we have Hoy and also three-time Tour de France victor Chris Froome in our ranks. Why?
