BRADLEY Wiggins has Chris Hoy in his sights. Yesterday the Londoner won his first gold medal of these Games, defending the Olympic pursuit title he won in Athens, but no sooner had he climbed off his bike than he was reiterating that he is not in Beijing to win one gold, or two, but three.
His ride to pursuit gold was majestic, despite a recent virus that left him bed-bound, "unable to scratch myself," and off the bike for a week.
By Friday night he had clearly recovered. Wiggins broke the Olympic record, even "throttling back" in
the closing stages, when he knew he was safely through, and continued that form into yesterday's first round proper, strolling to victory against Alexander Serov of Russia.
The real surprise in this round was not Wiggins, but 20-year-old Steven Burke, the latest talent to emerge on the British Cycling conveyor belt. Burke travelled to Beijing as a reserve for the team pursuit – which gets under way today – but was a late addition to the individual pursuit, an event for which he has done no specific training.
Drawn against Volodymyr Dyudya of the Ukraine, Burke rode a perfectly measured race, falling a couple of seconds behind his opponent but keeping to his schedule, and riding like a metronome to reel him in and win a place in the ride-off for the bronze medal.
Then he won that, too, to claim an Olympic medal in his first Games – a remarkable achievement in one of the blue riband events of the track programme.
Wiggins, meanwhile, easily made the final, and faced a match for the gold with New Zealander Hayden Roulston.
The dilemma for Wiggins concerned how to ride it: to go all out for the world record, held by Chris Boardman, or do enough to beat his opponent, and leave something in the tank for today's team pursuit.
In the event, he didn't have much choice. Roulston went out fast, and Wiggins had a battle on his hands.
Eventually he drew ahead, finally winning by three seconds, but not without suffering. "The final was hard," said Wiggins. "My first ride was controlled, I was trying not to dig too deep, but to have to do it two hours later was quite tough.
"Now I'm looking forward to the team pursuit," he continued. "We've trained bloody hard for it, and although it'll be tough after today, it's part of the challenge; part of the challenge of going for three gold medals."
Arguably the most aesthetically pleasing of all the track events, the team pursuit has been described as the 'Red Arrows on bikes,' or 'synchronised cycling,' since it requires millimetre-perfect precision between the four riders. Britain are the world champions and world record holders, but Denmark are tipped to be strong challengers.
"I think the Danes are going to give us a good run," said Wiggins, "but the three lads back at the village (Ed Clancy, Paul Manning and Geraint Thomas] are raring to go. I might struggle tomorrow morning but by the evening I'll be back on top of things. Then we've 24 hours to the final and another 24 hours to the Madison."
If all goes according to the Wiggins plan then he will be going for his third gold in that event, accompanied by Mark Cavendish, who this year became the first Briton to win four sprint stages in a single Tour de France. He is also, from the sound of things, raring to go. "Cav's like a bloody pit bull in the village at the moment," smiled Wiggins.
Yesterday's first gold medal didn't provoke the exuberant celebrations that Wiggins indulged in four years ago in Athens, but he said there was a reason for that. "I don't do emotion any more," he claimed.
"Athens sort of destroyed me. I was young (24], and to win the Olympics at that age was a massive thing.
"Winning that first gold took it out of me and I underperformed in the team pursuit (where he won silver, adding a bronze in the Madison]."
He also hinted that yesterday's individual pursuit might be his last in an Olympics.
"I'll be around in London, certainly, but whether I'll stick my neck on the line and go for number three in the pursuit, I don't know. I might do a (Steve] Redgrave and just go in with the other four – hide a bit."
The full article contains 754 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
