Rio de Janeiro (dpa) – Gold in the track cycling team pursuit has given Bradley Wiggins not only an eighth Olympic medal for a British record total, but also a good reason to call it quits on Olympic competition.
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There were reports that Britain and Australia had clocked unofficial world records in training in the last 18 months – Britain did 3:50.9 in Newport last month – and it appeared Australia had been bluffing in the first two rounds.
Team GB’s quartet of Wiggins, Owain Doull, Steven Burke and Ed Clancy blitzed the world record in qualification.
The team pursuit win means Britain have two victories from two events entered in the velodrome – they did not qualify in the women’s team sprint, won by China – and further success could follow on Saturday in the women’s team pursuit.
“I wanted to go out with this”, said 36-year-old Wiggins, who confirmed he was retiring from professional cycling shortly and the track immediately.
Cavendish is desperate for an Olympic medal, preferably a gold one, and wanted to ride in Thursday’s first round but instead was doing a session focused on the six-discipline omnium, which begins on Sunday and is something of a lottery.
Denmark took the bronze medal ahead of New Zealand. You’re not really aware of what’s going on.
Wiggins added: “I don’t want to dismiss the claims that have been made by certain people”.
Female cyclist Jess Varnish accused Sutton of making derogatory comments about her body shape and told her to “move on and have a baby” after she failed to qualify for this year’s Olympics, according to a British newspaper account.
Maybe Kenny will surpass him if he bags two more golds in Rio and continues to Tokyo to win a couple more.
Tabloid newspapers are likely to whip up a similar furore to 32 years’ ago. “This is the best team we’ve ever had”.
“I had come away with a bronze medal and I thought to myself, if that’s it for me then I’ll go down the job centre next week but I can always say I have got an Olympic bronze”.
“We started working for this medal four weeks after London 2012”, Welte said.
Clancy, who won omnium bronze at London 2012, added: “I’ll give it a go”.
Australia’s team pursuit squad, however highly they regard Wiggins, will probably not be sad to see the back of him after he helped inflict so many Olympic disappointments.
The Chinese pair had earlier broken their own world record in the two-lap race, posting a time of 31.928 seconds to surpass their 32.034 at last year’s world championships in France.
“This is something I’ll be proud of the rest of my life, and what Bradley’s done to win five (gold medals) is out of this world”, Doull said.
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“You’re so focused on what I’ve got to do in the race, you’re not really aware of what’s going on and how close it is”, Wiggins said, “I wasn’t anxious about how close the Aussies were”.
