Yesterday, to the delight of the British home crowd, Sir Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish claimed victory in the Madison at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in London. Afterwards the British duo rated the win and their rainbow jerseys among their “iconic” achievements together.
At the Olympic velodrome, the two Brits repeated their triumph in the same event at the 2008 World Championships in Manchester.
During the eight years that have passed, both riders have enjoyed tremendous successes on the road - aiding each other win the Tour de France and world road race championship to name a few. In the immediate aftermath of their triumph yesterday, both Wiggins and Cavendish ranked their second Madison world title among their finest achievements ever.
“We wanted to send the crowd home happy. It was like when the [Stone] Roses played at Heaton Park in 2012 - it was a good gig and everyone went home happy. After we won in 2008, we went on to conquer the world in those eight years. Like Barack Obama, over eight years we have had a good term in presidency, and we have come back full circle and won it again. What we have done in that eight years together, there are some iconic images, like Copenhagen [the 2011 world road race] when he won there, leading him out in those Tour stages when I was in yellow when he was world road champion, Wiggins said according to Skysports.com.
Cavendish added, “This is the perfect close to that. It might be the last international competition we will do together, so it's just really nice.”
Wiggins and Cavendish defeated France and Spain, who completed the podium, to seal the Madison, despite Cavendish crashing with 11 laps to go.
Wiggins added, “I didn't know he had fallen off. I was like, 'Cheeky little….', where is he? I kept looking for him thinking, 'This has been a long turn'. I thought he needed a lap out because he tried so hard to take a lap, and I did not realise he had crashed. I was out of it by then, foaming at the mouth for the last 10 laps.”
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