Bradley Wiggins won Britain’s second Olympic cycling gold medal in consecutive days yesterday, while Germany’s pursuit team gave veteran rider Jens Fiedler the third gold of his long career.
The Briton won the men’s 4-km individual pursuit, edging out his rival and close friend Brad McGee of Australia in the gold medal race.
Wiggins’ gold came a day after team mate Chris Hoy won the men’s 1-km time trial and is testimony to the coaching skills of Chris Boardman, who won the event for Britain in 1992 and has been Wiggins’ mentor for the past two years.
“This has been something I’ve wanted to do since I was 12 years old, since watching Chris Boardman win the gold medal in Barcelona,” Wiggins said.
“Chris really changed everything — my training, my mental approach — and really simplified the pursuit for me. I think I hugged him at the finish line but there were so many (British) red T-shirts there I didn’t get to see anyone’s face.” Sergi Escobar took bronze to give Spain their first cycling medal of the Athens Games.
Fiedler’s gold in the team sprint could be the last of his fine career and makes him one of only four men to have won five Olympic medals on the cycling track.
He won the individual sprint title in Barcelona and Atlanta and took bronze in the sprint and the keirin in Sydney.
The 34-year-old celebrated by cycling a lap of the Velodrome with his young son perched on his handlebars.
Germany’s gold also gave Stefan Nimke his second medal in two days following his bronze in the time trial on Friday.
Surprise finalists Japan took silver while world and defending Olympic champions France had to settle for bronze.
In the qualifiers for the women’s 3-km individual pursuit, two world records fell in the space of a couple of minutes.
Australia’s Katie Mactier beat Sarah Ulmer’s record only for the New Zealander to take it back in emphatic style moments later, chopping three seconds off Mactier’s time to clock 3 minutes 26.400 seconds.
Leontien Zijlaard-van Moorsel’s bid for an unprecedented fifth women’s cycling gold medal was extinguished when she failed to make the final.
