Wiggins, Cavendish and Trott seal golden sign off at Track Cycling World Championships in London
Four-time Olympic champion Sir Bradley Wiggins basked in the glory of winning madison gold alongside Great Britain team-mate Mark Cavendish on the final day of the Track Cycling World Championships at the London velodrome yesterday.
Cavendish fell inside the final 10 laps of the non-Olympic event although by that stage the duo held an unassailable lead and their 21 points was enough to beat France into second place and Spain into third.
Double Olympic winner Laura Trott had earlier claimed her second victory of the week in the women’s omnium as Great Britain topped the medal table at the world championships having accrued five golds, one silver and three bronze.
Victory represented Wiggins’s sixth track world title, while Cavendish has three, and their success was a repeat of the madison triumph they shared the last time they joined forces in the event at the 2008 Championships in Manchester.
“You couldn’t have written a better script,” said Wiggins. “It’s so nice to be world champion again. It was like deja vu from eight years ago. We went on to conquer the world in those eight years, like [American president’ Barack Obama.
“We’ve had a good term in presidency. Come back, full circle and won it again.”
Trott, who is the reigning Olympic and European champion in the six-event discipline the omnium, finished 18 points clear of closest rival Laurie Berthon of France to regain the rainbow jersey she wore in Melbourne four years ago.
Since winning gold Down Under in 2012, Trott has recorded three consecutive second-place finishes at the world championships but felt the manner of her victory was a good omen ahead of this year’s Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
“It’s only taken four years to get the gold back,” said Trott. “I tried to get enough points early and I’m just so happy. This is what I did before London [in 2012]. This time I really wanted to win so I’m just glad I could pull it off.”
The 23-year-old’s fiancee Jason Kenny, meanwhile, failed to match Trott’s feat of claiming double gold during the championships following his own sprint success on Saturday, as he finished sixth in the keirin.