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Wiggins inspired to Olympic glory by coach under inves

“I gave up the road, gave up the big salary; I came in and was just a number again and had to start from the bottom again”, he said.

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Britain set a new world record as they beat Australia in the Olympic velodrome, taking Wiggins’ medal haul to eight, including five golds.

Bradley Wiggins, Mark Cavendish, Ed Clancy, Owain Doull and Steve Burke finished in 3 minutes and 50.26 seconds. 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.

Meanwhile China’s women took a first ever cycling gold in the team sprint.

The win was Clancy’s third successive team pursuit Olympic gold and Burke’s second, while it’s a first for Olympic debutant Doull.

“(It is) extra special compared to London, because it’s not many who defend an Olympic title.

But he will not be trying to match Hoy’s six gold medals.

Gong Jinjie and Zhong Tianshi claimed China’s first ever Olympic track cycling gold medal when they won the women’s team sprint title, beating Russian Federation in the final. “At the end of the day, to win one Olympics is a big deal and something I’ll be proud of for the rest of my life”, said Doull.

U.S. quartet Sarah Hammer, Kelly Catlin, Chloe Dygert and Jennifer Valente won their semi-final at the Olympic velodrome in a time of 4min 12.282sec to beat the 4:13.260 mark Britain posted two days ago in Thursday’s qualifying. She is a member of British Cycling, she races, organises races as well, has done in the past… is that if my daughter (Bella) wanted to get into cycling, which she does, she already races with my son (Ben), would I be happy for her to go into British Cycling, and there’s a women’s academy?

Wiggins came to a crossroads at that point, not quite sure which direction to take his career.

Rio de Janeiro (CNN) A knighthood, Britain’s first Tour de France victor – and now his country’s most decorated Olympian.

“I’m glad I’ve won two on the bounce and I’m hoping to do another Olympics in Tokyo and go for a third medal”.

“The first people I bumped into when I came off the track were Steve Redgrave and Chris Hoy”. Two golds, world records, and a man alone, Sir Bradley Wiggins, the most successful British Olympian of all time.

“I’ve been an Olympic champion for 12 years – it’s something I’ve got used to”.

The king may be going off into retirement but Britain is not done with track cycling domination.

“Really the last 12 months we’ve pretty much done everything together, training camps at altitude, early-morning starts at the track, late finishes at the track before Christmas Day, all for this”, he told the BBC.

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“It wasn’t until two laps to go that I even knew where the Aussies were”.

Sir Bradley Wiggins