Sutton sent Wiggins a message of inspiration the morning before Friday’s team pursuit final, when Wiggins won his fifth gold and British record eighth medal in all.
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Sir Bradley Wiggins, Owain Doull, Ed Clancy and Steven Burke had said they were only targeting gold in Rio – Wiggins said in the aftermath of defeat in the world championships team pursuit final earlier this year he would bet his house on Team GB becoming Olympic champions.
It was fitting that two other great sporting knights were present to cheer him on in five-time champion rower Sir Steve Redgrave and six-time gold medal winning cyclist Sir Chris Hoy.
He added three more in Athens four years later, taking individual pursuit gold, team pursuit silver and Madison bronze with Rob Hayles. I came back to the track squad because he was in charge. “There is a real breadth of talent there now, right across a breadth of sports, and that is really satisfying”.
“We are here and we have done it and it is just this four guys here”.
“I admire him so much”. I think the tone of how some things are said can be skewed.
The 31-year-old Yorkshireman also praised medical staff who helped him overcome a recent back injury, saying: “I can’t thank them enough”.
Denmark easily beat New Zealand to earn bronze.
They did so in world record time, stopping the clock in three minutes, 50.265 seconds.
Burke swung off with two laps to go, once Britain had edged into the lead, and Doull did not realise.
So powerful was his surge that Wiggins distanced Doull.
The time is taken on the third rider and the Welshman clung on.
“I gave up the road, gave up the big salary and came in and was just a number again and had to start from the bottom again”, Wiggins said.
“That was different for everyone”. “I can wake up Monday and not have this as a burden”.
“It is a burden and you live with it every day”. He is the only cyclist to win both the Tour and an Olympic gold in the same year.
“Chris has got six, so I haven’t surpassed Chris”.
“I wanted to go out on top, and it was one of the best finals ever”.
“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?”
“My first memory as a child is being there with my dad when he was racing it and the place hasn’t changed”.
It was a fifth career gold medal for Wiggins, who claimed bronze in the same event 16 years ago at his first Games in Sydney.
The experience of Wiggins, who won gold in the event in 2008, was critical to their cause.
Wiggins insisted there had been no fall-out, merely that Cavendish had not made the grade.
This is the moment Sir Bradley Wiggins stuck has tongue out just after being confirmed as Great Britain’s most decorated Olympian. We’ve really tried to make sure we’ve had a good time. “We concentrated on making the best race possible”.
“And it wasn’t just me”.
He added that he hoped his son, now 28, would carry on and take part in the 2020 games in Tokyo.
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“She was inspired by Nicole Cooke’s gold in Beijing, and I’m confident there will be young girls in Wales inspired by Elinor, eager to take up cycling”.
