Bradley Wiggins & Mark Cavendish say world Madison win was iconic
By Matt Westby
Last Updated: 07/03/16 10:00am
Sir Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish have ranked their victory in the Madison at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in London on Sunday among their "iconic" achievements together.
The pair claimed the gold medal in front of a partisan home crowd at the Olympic velodrome, repeating their triumph in the same event at the 2008 World Championships in Manchester.
In the eight years between, both riders have enjoyed hugely successful careers on the road - helping each other win the Tour de France and world road race among other feats - and they believe their latest success was just as memorable.
Wiggins said: "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've 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.
"In 50 years' time, when you see those iconic photos of [Tom] Simpson and that now, you think what those images are going to be like."
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 beat France into second place and Spain into third to seal the Madison title, 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 didn't realise he had crashed. I was out of it by then, foaming at the mouth for the last 10 laps."
