Wiggins helps GB to gold in Sydney

BRADLEY Wiggins may have ended November on a sour note, but he certainly started December with a jingle after helping Great Britain to gold at the World Track Cup in Sydney.

Last week, Wiggins was still in shock after finding out that T-Mobile had withdrawn their sponsorship of Team High Road before he even had a chance to pull on the ProTour team’s famous magenta jersey.

He said: “I don't know what to say. I'm stunned. I didn't know anything about it. I heard the news like everybody else, just as I was about to set off for Sydney and can hardly believe it.�

Then the current World Champion and his new team-mate at High Road, Isle of Man youngster Mark Cavendish, put in a disappointing performance at the Ghent Six-Day in Belgium.

Wiggins added: “The first night was pretty tough for Cav, but we still did OK in some of the other events, it was just the Madison races. We weren’t losing laps, we just weren’t taking them when the other teams went.�

But the West Lancashire based rider showed he was made of tougher stuff by helping fellow World Champion Edward Clancy, Stephen Cummings and Chris Newton beat New Zealand and Australia to gold in the men’s team pursuit last Saturday.

After setting the fastest time in qualifying in the afternoon with a team that had never ridden together before, the Brits came out later that evening to show why they are the world's No.1, clocking the fastest time once again to take out the final against New Zealand.

Like clockwork, the team produced consistent kilometre times that saw them almost in the same straight as New Zealand by the time the finishing gun fired.

Dave Brailsford, Britain’s high performance director, said: “4:01 with this team, with no particular preparation, is pleasing this time of year.�

Wiggins, who was also happy but felt his team had a lot more in them, said: “I wasn't brilliant, but it felt controlled, really. We were all pretty flat out towards the end.

“We are all in different phases, I arrived here on Thursday morning after doing Gent Six-Day, Chris Newton just came out as well and a couple of the guys were in Perth training.

“It was nice to come together like that for the first time and put two rides together like that.�

In fact, Wiggins and his team-mates only came together two days before taking the gold and had little time together on the track in preparation for the event.

Wiggins added: “We did a standing two kilometre on the Thursday afternoon on race pace. It was the only sort of preparation we had really.�

Fellow GB rider and reigning champion Chris Hoy followed up his success in the pursuit with gold in the men's keirin. He edged out fellow Scot Ross Edgar and world sprint champion Theo Bos.

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