But once they crossed the line, they had set a new world record of 3:50.265 and were three quarters of a second clear.
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In the bronze-medal showdown, Denmark comfortably got the better of New Zealand.
With the women’s team pursuit and omnium events included at an Olympics for the first time, Trott won both events and set out in Rio to defend both her titles.
I take myself [back] to Sydney in 2000 and what that meant to me as a 20-year-old kid wandering around there, watching Steve win his fifth gold and thinking how incredible it was.
With three laps to go, Britain were ahead for the first time, and they ruthlessly pressed home their advantage to avenge their defeat at this year’s World Championships in London.
And what a race it was, as the Australian quarter of Alex Edmondson, Jack Bobridge, Michael Hepburn and Sam Welford seized an early lead that peaked at well over half a second.
Wiggins said: “The first people I bumped into were Chris Hoy and (rower) Steve Redgrave, so just to be in the same breath as those guys is an honour”.
Wiggins had more success at the 2008 Beijing Games, winning gold in the team and individual pursuits, before turning his full attention to the more lucrative and glamorous world of road racing.
“He has represented his country and his sport with great distinction over the years, and we at British Cycling are exceptionally proud of Sir Bradley and his team-mates after what was a spectacular performance this evening”.
Gong Jinjie and Zhong Tianshi beat a world-champion Russian duo in the final at the Olympic velodrome.
The Games’ greatest Olympian was well beaten by Singapore’s first ever gold medalist and even more astonishingly will have to share the silver with two other swimmers. We’ve really tried to make sure we’ve had a good time.
“If my daughter wanted to get into cycling, which she does, she already races with my son, would I be happy for her to go into British Cycling now?”
He returned to his track cycling roots to have one last shot at Olympic glory after winning the Tour de France and Olympic road time trial in 2012.
The message must have worked because the Great Britain women’s pursuit team also won a gold medal.
The 31-year-old Yorkshireman also praised medical staff who helped him overcome a recent back injury, saying: “I can’t thank them enough”.
“I wanted to go out with this”, Bradley said. Sir Ben Ainslie with his four golds and a silver in five Games deserves an honourable mention too, as does Sir Matthew Pinsent with his four golds in four Games and now Jason Kenny who made it gold medal number four on Thursday in the velodrome, and may yet jump up to six golds in the next few days.
Australia now stand in his way of claiming gold with Team GB as he loo ks to secure his place in British sporting history.
“This whole sexism thing, I’d never, ever seen any sign of that, really”.
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Michael Phelps was thwarted in his quest for medal number 27 as Joseph Schooling took the gold in the 100m butterfly easily.
