Team GB’s quartet of Wiggins, Owain Doull, Steven Burke and Ed Clancy blitzed the world record in qualification.
Advertisement
They will face Australia in the final as they seek a third consecutive Olympic title in the event.
Great Britain got off to a flying start at the velodrome after scooping gold in the men’s team sprint at the Rio Olympics.
Australia gambled in the final, setting out at breakneck pace. I think the tone of how some things are said can be skewed.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – Bradley Wiggins slowly dismounted his track bike for the final time, basking in the cheers of an adoring crowd, and was greeted by two of the most decorated Olympians in British history.
“I wanted to go out on top, and it was one of the best finals ever”.
“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”.
“I take it back to Sydney in 2000 and what that meant to me as a 20-year-old, wandering around there”, he said.
Wiggins and his fellow racers Edward Clancy, Steven Burke and Owain Doull also set a new world record in the event.
He added three more in Athens four years later, taking individual pursuit gold, team pursuit silver and Madison bronze with Rob Hayles.
“It is hard to come off and not just spout a load of cliches and emotional stuff”, said Wiggins.
His eighth Olympic medal in his fifth Games took him one clear of the mark he had shared with Hoy as Britain’s most decorated Olympian, though.
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.
It is an extraordinary show of all-round cycling prowess across every possible facet, from track to road, speed to endurance, and over a 16-year-career of winning medals.
Now he wants to go for another gold at the Tokyo Games in four years’ time.
Wiggins’ achievement somewhat overshadowed that of Clancy, who won his third successive team pursuit gold.
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. Not some crappy little race in northern France – Paris-Tours – climbing off in the feed zone.
The note stated: “To the team pursuit men. The records come naturally if you don’t chase them, just chase the opposition”.
“I’m happy and content with what I’ve done now”.
“The next two years would be terrible, going back to Manchester (where the national velodrome is located) and those early mornings in December with crap skin suits and crap helmets – they only bring the nice kit out once every four years!”
Advertisement
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.
