Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins says Australia is ‘obsessed’ with his Great Britain team

THE mind games in track cycling’s biggest rivalry have been reignited with Bradley Wiggins claiming Australia’s team pursuit squad is “obsessed” with Great Britain.

Bradley Wiggins says Australia is ‘obsessed’ with Great Britain.

THE mind games in track cycling’s biggest rivalry have been reignited with Bradley Wiggins claiming Australia’s team pursuit squad is “obsessed” with Great Britain, which is going for its third straight gold medal in Rio.

Wiggins has likened next month’s 4km battle on the boards to the Ashes and has branded the Aussies the “worst winners and worst losers in the world”.

Australia has not won the men’s team pursuit at an Olympics since 2004 as Great Britain dominated the two Games since by taking gold in Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012 in world record time.

Australia is the current world champion in the sport’s blue riband event but would hand back its rainbow jerseys in an instant to win Olympic gold in Brazil.

Bradley Wiggins leads Great Britain’s team pursuit outfit during a qualifying round at the World Track Cycling championships in London earlier this year.

Wiggins’ comments were met by silence from the Australian team camp in Mexico yesterday with officials declining to bite back at the Tour de France champion’s assessment of its team.

“The Aussies are the worst winners in the world and they’re the worst losers in the world,” Wiggins told British newspaper The Telegraph.

“You always see the odd press report, those kind of mind games. There was one the other week from their coach.

“At the end of the day they seem more obsessed with us than we are with them.

“That goes in most sports – the Ashes, the rugby.”

Great Britain has owned the velodrome at the past two Olympics by winning a combined 16 gold medals compared to Australia’s one which came through Anna Meares in London.

Its men’s team pursuit led by Geraint Thomas, Ed Clancy, Steven Burke and Peter Kennaugh broke the world record in London which still stands at 3mins 51.659 secs as Australia had to settle for silver.

Now under new coach Tim Decker, Australia claims it unofficially broke the world record by riding 3mins 50.360 secs at altitude in Mexico in July, 2015.

Wiggins is adamant the world record will fall in Rio on the new velodrome which was only finished last month.

“The world record always goes in the Olympic Games. It’ll be no different this time,” he said.

Wiggins, 36, is one of the greatest cyclists of all time having won four Olympic gold medals on the track and road and becoming the first British winner of the Tour de France in 2012.

He will be joined on the track in Rio by Owain Doull, Ed Clancy, Steven Burke and Mark Cavendish while Australia is sending Michael Hepburn, Jack Bobridge, Alex Edmondson and debutants Callum Scotson and Sam Welsford to try to wrestle the title from their grasp.

Originally published as Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins says Australia is ‘obsessed’ with his Great Britain team