Bradley Wiggins scorches to gold for Breat-Britain

Great Britain’s Bradley Wiggins fulfilled all expectations by netting the gold medal in the Beijing Olympic Games individual pursuit on Saturday.

24 hours after setting a new Olympic record during the qualifying round, Wiggins saw off New Zeland’s Hayden Roulston to take his first Olympic gold of 2008  for his country. Another British rider, Steven Burke, took bronze.

For Wiggins - a rider with Team Columbia when not in Great Britain colours like at Beijing - this is his second straight individual pursuit title at Olympic level.

The Londoner now goes on to take part in the team pursuit on Sunday before gunning for a third gold with Mark Cavendish in the Madison.

“The final round of the individual pursuit was really controlled, basicaly I was just trying not to go in too deep.” Wiggins said after his first Olympic triumph.

“To do it all over again, and then go again two hours later was really tough, though. And it’s been a long year building up for the Olympics.”

“ The next challenge for me will be the team pursuit, but I’ve done that before and I’ve been there before. On top of that, we’ve trained really hard for this.”

Asked if he could get three gold medals, Wiggins was confident but cautious.
“The Danes will give us a good run for our money in the team pursuit and I might struggle a bit in tomorrow morning [in the qualifying round] But by the evening I’m sure I’ll be back on top of it.”

“I’ve got really strong team-mates around me, this isn’t a one-man band after all.”

“All four of us, me and the three back in the Olympic village, are up for this team pursuit as well and then for the Madison Cav [Mark Cavendish] has got great form too. It’s all looking very good - really really promising.”

For more information on Team Columbia please visit www.highroa

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