Saturday 13 August 2016 01:47, UK
Sir Bradley Wiggins admitted it was a “relief” to end his top-level cycling career with an Olympic gold medal in the team pursuit at Rio 2016.
Wiggins, Ed Clancy, Steven Burke and Owain Doull defeated Australia in a fiercely contested final in a world-record time of 3min 50.265sec.
It was Wiggins' fifth Olympic gold and eighth medal in total, taking him beyond Sir Chris Hoy as the most successful British Olympian in history.
Wiggins will now wind down his career with a handful of races around Europe before retiring in November.
"It's just more relief really, than anything," Wiggins said. "That was different for everyone. Doull was punching the air; I was just saying to myself, 'Thank f*** that's over'.
"I can wake up now [on] Monday and not have to have this. It is a burden and you live with it every day. It's gone now. I've been Olympic champion for 12 years. It's something I've got used to.
"I wanted it to end like this, not some crappy little race in the north of France, Paris-Tour in the rain, climbing off in the feed [zone] or whatever. Brilliant."
Wiggins is set to race the Six Day London track cycling event from October 25-30 and confirmed after his Rio triumph that his final outing before retirement would be the Ghent Six Day in Belgium from November 15-20.
He added: "I'm going to do a couple of six days because we won the world Madison title. I have to go back to my next historical base and the Ghent Six Day, which is where I want to end it.
"My first memory as a child is being there with my dad when he was racing it and the place hasn't changed. It'll be a nice end to my career, back where I was born, back where it started."
