Olympic Cycling: Sir Bradley Wiggins going for pursuit gold on Friday

Britain’s Ed Clancy, Steven Burke, Owain Doull and Wiggins clocked three minutes 50.570 seconds in the four-man, four-kilometres event, qualifying for the gold medal ride-off against Australia.

Prior to the Olympic Games it was unlikely that Mark Cavendish was going to ride in the team pursuit but now the 30 time Tour de France stage victor has said that he is ‘unlikely’ to ride in the track event which kicks-off tomorrow.

Sir Bradley Wiggins may be aiming for a fifth Olympic gold and record eighth medal in Rio on Friday night but the Briton seems to have been irked in the lead up.

On his illustrious CV, Wiggins now has seven Olympic medals (four golds, one silver and two bronze).

Up against New Zealand in Friday’s semi-final, Britain were a second ahead after 1.5km and had more than doubled that by the 3km mark. Canada qualified in 4mins 19.599secs, more than six seconds behind Britain. But I think the lads have been training together.

Dyer added: “The guys felt Heiko’s value as a coach would be through seeing rather than timing”.

Britain did not qualify for the first event on Friday, the women’s team sprint, a turn of events which ultimately led to the resignation of technical director Shane Sutton amid discrimination allegations which he denies. Australia posted a time of 3-53.429.

Cavendish, like Kluge, has been juggling his professional road career with track training this year, and arrived in Brazil on the back of winning four stages on the Tour de France, increasing his overall tally to 30. They will face Australia in the final as they seek a third consecutive Olympic title in the event.

In the corresponding women’s event, which resumes and concludes on Saturday, Laura Trott, Joanna Rowsell Shand, Elinor Barker and Katie Archibald advanced in a world record of 4:13.260.

Four-time Olympic champion and 2012 Tour de France victor Wiggins returned to track cycling full-time just over a year ago following a successful stint on the road in which he won Olympic time-trial gold in 2012 and the world championships in 2014.

So I think it’s really good for them (other riders) to see that and if you watch how they (Wiggins and Cavendish) operate in the team, they are exceptionally good riders to have in the team.

Dyer believes Cavendish is well placed to succeed in the omnium despite managing only sixth at the world championships in London in March.