Olympic champion Owain Doull – who was part of the team who claimed gold in the men’s pursuit last night – took to Twitter to post a picture of a letter pinned to the girls’ room, warning the victorious men’s team to stay out.
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And he says he and his wife Cath, a cyclist herself, have discussed whether they would wish their children to become involved in British Cycling.
Though, of course, he didn’t need another gold to prove a point – from his eight rainbow jerseys to his Tour de France victory, his position as a British sporting icon is long secure.
This time he briefly collapsed into a white folding chair, as the enormity of his and his team-mates’ achievement hit home.
Great Britain were trailing for most of the 4,000m race, but they stormed back to beat the Australians by nearly a second and post a new world record time of 3 minutes 50.265 seconds.
But Wiggins and team had a game plan and they stuck to it, though they didn’t overhaul their rivals’ advantage until the last 400m of the 4,000m race.
They stopped the clock at 3:50.265, almost a second and a half quicker than their world record from four years ago. “Extra special compared to London”, he said, “because it’s not many who defend an Olympic title. It’s just something to tell the kids about when they’re older”. You live with it every day. I don’t want to dismiss the claims that have been made by certain people.
“It’s a relief. Eighteen months ago there were doubts about whether I could come back and do this”.
“So to do what Brad’s done and win five is out of this world!”
“He wants to come back”.
“I’m not going to Tokyo, I’d love to but I wanted to finish on a high”.
“It wasn’t until two laps to go that I even knew where the Aussies were”. They are so talented at what they do but they don’t get the credit for it because they are not big road stars. ‘I spoke to him before the final yesterday, ‘ he said. “When you’re with guys like that it makes my job a hell of a lot easier”.
“(Australia are) the reason I not only came back to the track, but I took it so seriously and gave up the road and everything.
Britain’s first Tour de France champion was nostalgic and on Thursday watched Chris Boardman’s individual pursuit win from Barcelona 1992, a moment which inspired him to embark on his own career.
Earlier in the evening, Denmark beat New Zealand to claim the bronze medal in the Men’s 4km Team Pursuit.
It was a dominant day for Britain’s rowing teams, with men’s coxless four quartet Alex Gregory, Mohamed Sbihi, Constantine Louloudis and George Nash registering a fifth consecutive Olympic gold.
“The first people I bumped into when I came off the track were Steve Redgrave and Chris Hoy”.
“I never thought about it when I was competing”.
The night was a triumph for all involved, but Sir Wiggo was naturally centre stage, lighting up the Olympics in Rio.
“I can remember 16 years ago being in Sydney and seeing Steve win his fifth with Matt (Pinsent), James Cracknell and that”.
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“I am so happy I got to share the final with Kat (Driscoll), one person would have made history and we got two [in the final]”.
