Bradley Wiggins becomes GB’s most decorated Olympian after pursuit win

Sir Bradley Wiggins became Great Britain’s most decorated Olympian as the men’s team pursuit smashed their own world record twice on the way to gold.

It is Sir Bradley’s fifth Olympic gold, putting his level with Sir Steve Redgrave, and a British record eighth medal.

His teammate Ed Clancy also made history, becoming the first ever cyclist to win the team pursuit at three consecutive Olympic Games.

Sir Bradley, Clancy, Steven Burke and Owain Doull set a new world record of 3:50.570 in the semi-final in order to set up a race for the gold with Australia.

The Australian team kept star rider Jack Bobridge in reserve, having not shown their full hand so far, and so it would be a clash between the perennial rivals.

The British cyclists were trailing until about 500m to go, before mounting a comeback – they surged to the lead and broke their own world record again, securing gold in a time of 3:50.265, with Australia less than a second behind.

After the race, Sir Bradley said: “I knew it would be close, so when we crossed the line, it was more relief than anything. I’m just happy to be able to wake up on Monday and not have this. It is a burden. I wanted to go out like this, I wanted it to end like this and not with some crappy little race in the north of France, climbing off at the feed.”

Clancy said: “It was just about keeping your bottle, it wasn’t easy. We could sense by the crowd we weren’t ahead. When we crossed that line a second ahead, I think it was the happiest moment in my life.”

The bronze-medal race between Denmark and New Zealand ultimately went the way of the former team.

Sir Bradley will now wind down his career ahead of retirement in November, stating that he wants to spend more time with his family.