UFO Info Week-End

A bit of a dream

A bit of a dream.”A description that could be applied to the madison, a monster of an event, in which 18 teams of two riders conspire to produce a kaleidoscope of colours amid what is best described as organised mayhem. It is actually a highly tactical race, requiring the teams to engage in 10 sprints within 50km, or 200 laps of the velodrome, while also endeavouring to lap their rivals. Britain’s bronze was secured despite the 108th-lap fall of Hayles, when he collided with the Dutchman Robert Slippens.”In the madison, it’s very cutthroat There’s a lot of pushing and barging You usually have to take a few people’s wheels away That’s probably what happened to Rob,” Wiggins said. “You have to be ruthless and keep reminding yourself that an Olympic medal is something that you’ll have for the rest of your life. Her rivals know her only from her back, as she accelerates away from them and their legs refuse to respond. We are luckier; we’ve seen her victories from the front, and the thing we’ll always remember about Kelly Holmes is her face: that mixture of smile and astonishment in her moments of achievement in Athens.
Not for her Seb Coe’s patrician look of smooth assumption, Steve Ovett’s determined grimace in Moscow, or the strong, silent grace of Steve Redgrave. This year will ride with Credit Agricole, former team of Chris Boardman..

pursuit.Other: Made professional road debut in 2002 with French La Fran?se des Jeux team. pursuit.World Championships medals: 1999 Gold madison (Rob Hayles); 2000, 2001, 2003 Silver team pursuit 2003 Gold ind pursuit European medal: 2003 Gold ind. And never mind that he achieved it balanced on his behind.BiographyBradley WigginsBorn: 24 April 1980 in Ghent, Belgium.Olympic medals: 2000 (Sydney) Bronze team pursuit; 2004 (Athens) Gold ind. pursuit, Silver team pursuit, Bronze madison (Rob Hayles).Commonwealth Games medals: 1998 Silver team pursuit; 2002 Silver team pursuit, ind. Now I can take it out and say, ‘Yes, I’m Olympic champion’,” says Wiggins, Britain’s hero of the handlebars.

“Once I’ve got home and absorbed all this, and reflected on it all, I’ll decide.”At last, he can contemplate just what he has achieved. “When I won the individual gold, I put the medal in my drawer and concentrated on the other events. As athletes, we have a responsibility to those people watching.”Speaking of Boardman, the last question, on his future, is inevitable: will he follow the same route as that Olympic gold medallist did initially, and ride in the Tour de France? “I’m not sure I want to flog myself round the Tour for three weeks for the next few years,” he says. When I was 12 I watched Chris [Boardman] win the gold and it inspired me. I had an EPO test the day after my individual gold as well.” Ask him why a concerted campaign of drug-testing is so important to him – the Great Britain set-up also plan to introduce a monthly blood-test – and he retorts: “The young kids who I shook hands with in the back straight tonight. He adds: “Straight after qualifying fastest for the pursuit I was called to dope control.