Great Britain’s Bradley Wiggins made the men’s team pursuit medal ceremony the best medal ceremony in Rio when he flashed a handsome eye-popping tongue-out face at the camera. Five Olympic gold medals to his name and three of other colours – he’s just a good, old fashioned ordinary superhero. “If I’m completely honest, I think there’s a lot of bitter people that didn’t make the grade, got the boot and they have now come out picking holes in things”.
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But he will not be trying to match Hoy’s six gold medals.
Wiggins and his fellow racers Edward Clancy, Steven Burke and Owain Doull also set a new world record in the event.
Australia’s Alex Edmondson, Michael Hepburn, Sam Welsford and Bobridge clocked three minutes 51.008 seconds.
Four years ago in London when Sir Chris Hoy won his sixth gold medal – still a record for a Briton – he was immediately congratulated by his own sporting hero, five-time Olympic champion rower, Sir Steve Redgrave.
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.
Brothers Gary and Paul O’Donovan won rowing silver in the lightweight men’s double sculls to give Ireland their first medal of the Games.
I said it would take a world record to win an Olympic gold – they were not going to go out and take silver and it was one of the best finals we’ve been in. “It was fantastic”, he said.
“The place hasn’t changed and it will be a nice end to my career, back where I was born, where it all started”.
Wiggins said he will retire from bike racing following November’s Six Days of Ghent indoor track cycling competition, where he will compete alongside Cavendish. The 23-year-old from Cardiff had to dig deep to keep pace as Wiggins towed Clancy towards the line. But there you go – the legs do the talking and I’m happy and content with what I have done.
“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”.
“Eighteen months ago there were doubts that I could come back and do this”.
“I wanted to go out like this, I wanted it to end like this and not some crappy little race in the north of France – Paris-Tours in the rain, climbing off at the feed”, said Wiggins.
“We started working for this medal four weeks after London 2012”, Welte said.
She has previously represented Wales at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, winning silver in the points race and bronze in the scratch.
Australia, who had only squeezed into the final with a time nearly three seconds slower than the British, knew they had to go for broke to have a chance.
After the win, when asked if he would have a beer to celebrate, Sir Bradley replied with a wry smile: “I don’t drink”.
The Games’ greatest Olympian was well beaten by Singapore’s first ever gold medalist and even more astonishingly will have to share the silver with two other swimmers.
“I’ve been Olympic champion for 12 years, so I’m quite used to it”.
“It [the race and victory] was more about personally what it meant to me”.
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British Olympic Association chief executive Bill Sweeney said: “It is an incredible achievement, and one that is a privilege to have witnessed”.
