Olympic Challenge for Bradley Wiggins
Story posted November 28
Interview by Larry Hickmott
At the last Olympics, one British athlete won three medals, Great Britain cyclist Bradley Wiggins. With the Olympics less than a year away now, his attention has turned to some unfinished business from Athens 2004 – and that’s winning the events he feels he should have won three years ago. Had he done so, it would have been three Golds for the Londoner but in the end, he came away with one of each colour - Gold (Individual Pursuit), Silver (Team Pursuit) and Bronze (Madison).
So, with the winter track season about to kick off in Sydney, the last one before the next Olympics, Bradley Wiggins has been working hard – very hard – at Manchester to get his Olympic qualification challenge up and running at the Sydney UCI World Track Cup this weekend. His focus however has been somewhat distracted by the news that the sponsor he was about to ride for in 2008 has suddenly left the sport and he was at the time he left for Australia, stunned and in the dark as to what would happen now.
Whilst Bradley was not jumping to any conclusions as to what he was going to do on the road team wise in 2008 until he’s had more news from his trade team boss, one thing is for certain and that is the GB team is very much up and running and ready to start the final run for the Athens Olympics, fully supporting its athletes in their quest to win Gold medals.
Speaking to British Cycling a few days before he started the Gent Six which he rode with Mark Cavendish, Bradley explained that “I’m riding Gent, and then go straight to Sydney and do the Madison and Team Pursuit. Then, from there, I go to Beijing to ride the Individual Pursuit and the Madison.”
“Originally I was only going to go to Beijing and do the Individual Pursuit but because we need to qualify for the Madison and that looks quite tight, after the team took a second look at it, we decided we’re going to go to Sydney to try and make sure of qualification. While I am there, they are going to run me in the Team Pursuit because I am going better than I thought I would be at this time of the year.”
Brad says that he’s looking forward to getting back on the track in major competition and having already qualified a place for the Track Worlds being World Champion in the Pursuit, it is the Madison where Brad and the team are looking to make sure of a place.
Talking about his form on the track, Brad says “I did two laps (on the front) in a training effort in the team pursuit (at near race pace) so I know I’m going pretty well. It was really good for me to do the Time Trial Worlds this year because it kept me going longer in the year and I finished the season with really good fitness. I then took a few weeks off and got back into a structured training programme here."
"So I have not really lost a great deal which means I’m trying not to push too hard at the moment.”
Brad’s training at Manchester has seen him at the Velodrome from dawn to dusk as he explained: “I have been here three days a week, 12 hours a day. I come in at 6am and go on the treadmill for a couple of hours in the morning, take a kip and then do the afternoon session (which doesn’t finish until 5pm). I treat it like I’m going to work for the day because otherwise I’d get tied up at home doing other things. It has worked really well and I’m in good shape to do a sub 4.20 in the Individual which is where I want to be at this time of the year.”
After many many years on the track, winning a medal at 19 at the Sydney Olympics, Brad’s training has evolved over the years and he now feels he has a good recipe for success on the track. “For me, I have a template to the training I need to do. I have always had a structured programme, almost like a rower would train, and it’s the way I prefer it.”
“One thing you have training on the track, is you have markers and times you can relate to from different years and that helps me judge my form almost to perfection each year. I prefer it that way rather than doing a massive block on the road in the winter and then coming in six weeks before the track worlds and having to start to learn pace judgement again.”
“I prefer to touch on it three days a week right through the winter. So when I come in after Paris-Nice next year, two weeks before the Worlds, I will have all pace judgement work in the bank and it will come naturally to me. I did this last year and I had the best season on the track and road I have ever had.”
“I tried various things the last few winters and last winter seemed to work really well. So I tweaked it this winter, refined it a bit more and its been really good.”
Partnerships
As for the Madison and who he will ride with in Sydney he says “We’re just eyeing up a possible combination there. Obviously Rob (Hayles) is still in the frame and in my opinion still one of the best Madison riders in the world. He had a disappointing Worlds this year with illness and so on so we’re going to be trying different combinations.”
“I have ridden with Rob at Olympic and World level for the last eight years starting out together at the Berlin Worlds in 1999. So it will be interesting to ride with some one different. I know Rob inside out on the track. I can spot signs when he is really good and when he’s not so I can see when we need to take a lap out if need be and get him in at the right times and know from his body language when to take a lap and things. I haven’t got that with Cav so it will good to race with him.”
“Rob and Cav have been World Champions whilst myself and Rob have performed at Olympic level together. Until Gent, Cav and I hadn't worked together so we need to gain some World Track Cup experience for the bigger picture.”
Explaining more about the opening UCI World Track Cups of the season and his goal of helping GB to qualify a Madison place, Bradley told us “at the first two World Cups Cav and I will be looking to put some points on the board for qualification.”
“We’re just trying to tick all the boxes in terms of qualification as well as gaining experience”.
A massive year ahead
With the Olympics next year, Bradley says “the next 12 months are massive for me and I’m really excited. I have never felt the need to do something like I have at this point. I am so much more motivated than I was before Athens when I never really enjoyed the training, just the racing.”
“Now, I have got to the stage where I enjoy the whole experience, training and everything. I don’t get super nervous before the big occasions -- I now really look forward to them which helps me train harder through the winter. The next Olympics is just such a massive opportunity for me. This year will be for me, the difference between being remembered as a good cyclist and having been a great cyclist if I do what I want to do.”
Not that Bradley has done too bad having won three medals in a single Olympic Games (plus another in Sydney) but Athens was more about not what medals he won, but those he didn’t win. “I haven’t done too badly. I think me winning three medals last time was overshadowed by Kelly Holmes—no-one paid too much attention to what I did. In everyone’s eyes, me and the coaching staff here, Athens was viewed as a massive disappointment even though I won three medals.”
“We lost the Team Pursuit and were gutted. We didn’t perform to our best in the final and in the Madison we were on fire and had the potential to win gold so winning bronze was viewed as a consolation prize. We knew we could have won it.”
It is with that burning ambition inside that Bradley boarded the plane to Sydney where he will start the final road to Beijing, looking at first qualifying a place in the GB team and then preparing to try and win three Golds rather than just three medals.
And who knows, with the strength in depth that the GB team has at the moment and is building on, the goals may well be the same in London in 2012. It is those Games that really loom large in Bradley’s sights and after he raced around the track in training with a group of 19 year olds at a pace most countries don’t get near in the Team Pursuit, he admits that those same riders may well be his teammates in 2012 and that is indeed an exciting prospect as until Athens, the riders he was training with hardly changed over the course of eight years. Like Bradley, Team GB is evolving and going forward at a rapid pace.
Good luck to Bradley in Sydney.
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