Wiggins won 1 gold at the London 2012 Olympics, 2 at the 2008 Beijing games, a gold, silver, and bronze at Athens in 2004, and a bronze in Sydney in 2000. Gong and Zhong were also denied a world championship gold in March 2016 when they were demoted to silver because of a technicality in the final against Russian Federation. It’s something to tell the kids about when they are older. And maybe Froome will if he wins two more Tour de Frances to become one of the true greats of the most prestigious cycle race of them all.
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“It’s just more relief really, than anything”, Wiggins said.
It seemed, after years of dominance, that the rest of the world – Australia, Denmark and New Zealand – had finally caught up. Wiggins went on to become both Britain’s first Tour de France victor to win more Olympic medals than any other Briton, combining a track and road racing career in a way few have been able to master.
“I’ve been Olympic champion for 12 years, so I’m quite used to it”.
“I wanted to go out on top, and it was one of the best finals ever”, enthused Wiggins, who also paid tribute to the losing finalists.
“I never considered that I’ll be up there with them, that’s never driven me, I’ve never thought about it”.
“I take myself to Sydney in 2000 and what that meant to me as a 20-year-old kid wandering round there, watching Steve win his fifth gold there and thinking how incredible and unbelievable it was”.
“I’ve won Europeans, World’s, Commonwealths everything you can do with a British jersey, it’s just the Olympics which I haven’t done yet”, the Brit added.
Cavendish, who is chasing a first Olympic medal, knew the team pursuit represented a surer chance of success than the six-discipline omnium, for which he has been selected and which begins on Sunday.
The pursuit gold was Team GB’s second in the velodrome after Jason Kenny, Callum Skinner and Philip Hindes’ victory in the men’s team sprint final.
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“We saw how close it was and we couldn’t afford it, having been together for the best part of 18 months. I didn’t freeze him out of it and he knows that”. But there you go – the legs do the talking and I’m happy and content with what I have done.
