From yellow to gold for two-wheel timelord Wiggins

Bradley Wiggins last night became the most decorated British Olympian in history after he claimed a sensational gold medal in the elite men’s time-trial.

The Tour de France winner stopped the clock at 50 minutes and 39 seconds over the 44-kilometre course around London, coming in a full 42 seconds quicker than second-placed German star Tony Martin. Wiggins’ Sky team-mate Chris Froome took bronze, just over a minute back.

It brings his haul since Sydney 2000 to four gold, two bronze and one silver. Wiggins said “It’s been an amazing six weeks. I’ve answered all the questions in the last six weeks.

“We’ve done it. To win another Olympic title in another event, it’s never, ever going to get any better than that. I realised on the podium, I don’t think anything’s going to top that. Winning the Tour and then winning Olympic gold in London.”

Defending champion Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland) could not contend with the leaders, eventually coming in over two minutes down on Wiggins, taking seventh place.

Ireland’s David McCann disappointed with a time almost five and a half minutes slower than the winner, which earned him 27th place of the 37 finishers.

Meanwhile, former professional rider Paul Kimmage has launched a blistering attack on Roche and Dan Martin for their performance in last Saturday’s Olympic road race — a race the duo finished 88th and 87th respectively.

“It was an absolutely dreadful performance,” Kimmage said on Newstalk last night.

“There are a lot of Irish riders, very average Irish riders, who have represented us at the Olympics over the years. What they did give however was 100% commitment to the jersey. That is not something I could extend to Nicolas Roche or Daniel Martin on Saturday. I thought that was one of the poorest performances I’ve ever seen. If I was (chief executive of the Irish Sports Council) John Treacy now, looking at the funding that we’ve put into these guys for the last number of years, I would be seriously questioning their commitment.”

Roche has taken his career in a new direction signing a two-year deal with Danish team Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank yesterday. Roche has been with French team, Ag2r La Mondiale, since 2009 but held talks in recent months with the Bjarne Riis-led team. That move was rubber-stamped yesterday and sees Roche link up with Alberto Contador, whose suspension for doping offences ends this week.