Sir Bradley Wiggins became Britain’s most decorated Olympian of all-time as he claimed his eighth career medal – a gold in the team pursuit.
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Nick Dempsey will collect Team GB’s first sailing medal of the Rio 2016 Games after guaranteeing himself silver in the RS:X class.
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.
“It wasn’t until two laps to go that I even knew where the Aussies were”, Wiggins said. I went out there and did my absolute best on the trampoline in that final.
“It’s great to see him back on the track where his career started, and clearly enjoying it”.
The 31-year-old Manxman claimed Wiggins was “super stressed” in the lead-up and had frozen him out of the team pursuit squad.
American gymnast Gabby Douglas had just won gold in the team event, but as her four team-mates stood to attention, their hands on their hearts to greet the Star Spangled Banner, the 20-year-old had her hands by her side, looking dejected.
The thought of the early morning training is enough to discourage any such folly.
“In some ways I realised what we were going into and that adds nerves to it, these guys (were) bouncing off the ceiling all afternoon in the apartment”.
He does not use the word legacy but he feels he has left his mark on the sport he loves. “I’m happy and content with everything I’ve achieved”. The first people I bumped into when I came off the track were Steve Redgrave and Chris Hoy.
Hours before that Team GB had won two gold medals in the rowing, with Alex Gregory revealing that the British men’s four were driven to success by a fear of letting the country down.
“It’s brilliant really, I’m just taking it all in and I get to wake up tomorrow an Olympic champion”, added Wiggins.
It’s a big thing for them to let me do [the Olympics] but it’s only one year.
Britain had already smashed the world’s best landmark in qualifying for the medal decider by ousting New Zealand, and it was world champions Australia who succumbed in the final as Wiggins, Ed Clancy, Steven Burke and Owain Doull clocked three minutes, 50.265 seconds.
“Bradley’s a freak of nature!”
“So to do what Brad’s done and win five is out of this world!”
British Cycling subsequently denied there was a rift between Cavendish and the team’s de facto leader and when the Manxman failed to show his face at the velodrome on Thursday or Friday, where Wiggins was “being the hero and all that”, it went on to dismiss stories emanating from within the camp that he had fallen out with the team coach, Heiko Salzwedel. I’ve always said Ed and Burkey, for me, are two of the most underrated athletes I’ve ever raced with.
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High praise from someone who was a team-mate of three-time Tour victor Chris Froome.
