Men's Madison
2008 World Track Championships - Day 4
Great Britain made it eight gold medals with a nail-biting and - excuse me if I'm running out of superlatives - stupendous win in the Men's Madison. The pairing of Brad Wiggins and Mark Cavendish rode their hearts out and pulled off another famous victory which seemed unlikely for much of the race, so closely were they marked by the other leading teams.
The first teams to make a mark on the race were Belgium and Denmark, who worked together and took a lap after 45 laps of racing. They were joined by the Swiss some 30 laps later, but repeated efforts by the GB pairing came to naught as they were constantly hunted down.
Classic mid-race action shot of Wiggins and Cavendish handslinging
However, they never lost heart and, vitally, from winning the first sprint onwards, they steadily accumulated points in the sprints. Things began to get desperate for GB as the race entered its last quarter and Spain became the fourth team to gain a lap.
However, Brad and Mark dug deep again with 25 laps to go and riding alone for much of the time they gave it their all in a real do-or-die effort. Behind them, the field split as various teams tried to pull them back and counter attack, but roared on by a capacity home crowd they stuck to their task with utter belief, not slacking for a moment and finally they claimed the lap, picking up sprint points in the process. 
As Bradley drives on to gain a lap late in the race, the effort is clearly etched on his face
With less than 20 laps to go, it was very late for the other teams to counter, though the Germans did manage to gain a lap and could still have beaten GB if they had won the final sprint unanswered. However, Brad and Mark had things under control and led out the final sprint to make sure of a famous win. To say the crowd went wild would eb an understatement: throughout the race they'd almost acted as a third man, such was their involvement and when the win was confirmed the roar could probably have been heard at the football stadium over the road!
Bradley and Mark share the moment with their family and friends
The Germans claimed second and long-time leaders Denmark were third.
Reactions:
Bradley Wiggins: “You never give up. I don’t think there is ever a point in a race that you give up. I just kept plugging away and the move I made was by attacking from the front and had a flick under the kiwi. The guy behind thought I was going to swing up and I dived straight down again and went and opened up a bit of gap just enough to make them think god, I’m not going with that. It hasn’t really sunk in yet. The potential to win three Gold was there at the start of the week but the last win is always a lottery.”
Mark Cavendish: Asked whether the break from the road has been worth it, he replied “absolutely. It’s brilliant.” Mark explained that his form after Italy has been great after not going to deep in the stage race there. In the Points race the day before, he says “physically I was good but I felt nervous and I didn’t want to do to much and that put me on the back foot and that is when I don’t seem to ride well.”
On trying to get a lap, he explained “we tried and tried, and it seemed like everyone was on us every time. I said to Brad we just got to keep going. I felt strong, Brad gave me a couple of double rests at times, and that allowed me to get on top of it. Once I get into the red, it is difficult to get back but when we got going, I was just going and going and we got the lap. The bunch seemed to break but we seemed to get through it.”
On winning in front of his fiancée Melissa, he says “that was brilliant. It was so great to have her hear. The whole crowd was brilliant and when we were getting a lap the sound was amazing. This is a real special moment.”
Asked which of her title wins, this or the one in 2005 with Rob Hayles, he says “this was the hardest to win but we rode that like a proper Madison. When Rob and I did it, we were outsiders and so they were different races. I still have to thank Rob for a lot here because he taught me a lot about the technical side of how to ride a Madison. He was brilliant.”
“I could see halfway through that riders were on their knees and I was out of race and I wanted Brad to come round so we could go. It was brilliant to keep going, and keep going and that was the plan. I’m doing it this year after getting a lot of stick through the world cup campaign and six day after my rest but the goal was to win this as its more important than any world cup to us. And today I let my legs do the talking. We proved a point and what a great place to do it.”
Shane Sutton: “The guys got their tapers right. I probably didn't see this amount of success coming but I could see we were in pretty good shape and I think when you get a good start, the momentum rolls. Bradley kicked us off on a real good note and it rolled from there.”
“Everyone has fed off that first medal and got stronger and stronger and we’ve had a bit more success than we expected but we’ll take it.”
“On Chris Hoy, we decided after Bordeaux to move in another direction and we did that. I wouldn’t say the Madison is a lottery though because we have the fastest road sprinter in the world and the best pursuiter in the world so I was confident we were going to win. Even when they needed a lap with 30 to go, I spoke with Rod, and I said to him you got to keep putting them out there and they did the business”.
“We are now the hunted (nation) and all the big players are in the park but we’ll go away, have a bit of a rest and take it from there. I think it is great they’ll go there (Beijing) with lots of confidence. If we can do better than what we did in Athens, we’ll be happy.”
Results
1. GBR CAVENDISH Mark & WIGGINS Bradley 19 points
2. GER KLUGE Roger & POLLACK Olaf 13
3. DEN MORKOV Michael & RASMUSSEN Alex 11
4. BEL DE KETELE Kenny & KEISSE Iljo 8
5. SUI MARVULLI Franco & RISI Bruno 1
