Make ours a treble as Wiggins and Hoy target their place in history

13 April 2012

Bradley Wiggins and Chris Hoy bid on Tuesday to become the first Britons for 100 years to win three gold medals at the same Olympics.


Not since Henry Taylor claimed a hat-trick of swimming triumphs in London in 1908 has the feat been achieved, and it could be matched twice in an hour by the veterans of Team GB's all-conquering track cycling team.

One more for the road: Bradley Wiggins (left) and Chris Hoy will both go for third golds as history beckons

One more for the road: Bradley Wiggins (left) and Chris Hoy will both go for third golds as history beckons

On Monday, Wiggins won his second gold in Beijing - and Britain's 12th - by joining forces with Paul Manning, Geraint Thomas and Ed Clancy to crush Denmark in the men's team pursuit.

He now partners Tour de France sensation Mark Cavendish in the Madison, while Hoy will attempt to win the men's sprint in which his toughest opponent may be team-mate Jason Kenny.

With Victoria Pendleton favourite to win the women's sprint title, the cyclists could make it an astonishing nine golds in total.

Overall, Team GB have at least five more possible triumphs on Tuesday, which could see them roar past the 15 achieved at Antwerp in 1920.

But Wiggins warned: 'The Madison is the hardest of the lot. Anything can happen. You can be the strongest team and have a crash early, so we'll see.'

But British dominance will continue, according to Australia's head coach Shayne Bannan, whose team have failed to pick up a medal despite being top nation at Athens 2004.

Bannan said: 'The Brits have set the standard as we did four years ago. What they've done here has been incredible and great to watch. They've made the other countries sit up and rethink the way that we do things.

'We've got plans in place for 2012 but their riders are reasonably young and they have good depth. It's going to be a really hard task to catch them up in four years, let's not kid ourselves.'

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