Chris can make it a golden Rio
from a geographical perspective – he claims his old Sky team-mate will win at least one gold medal in Brazil, with the first of those, the road race, on Rio’s opening day of action.
Wiggins, 36, said: “It’s probably harder for him this time. He has to travel out to a completely different continent.
“He can do it, definitely. The way he won the Tour, that form is not going to go anywhere for two weeks. If anyone can do it, he can do it of all those people there at the Tour.
“All I had to do was keep my head on for 10 days and do the same performance. The power I averaged that day, I knew nothing was going to change.
“There weren’t too many challenges for me to overcome – other than I couldn’t get down my lane to my home for a couple of days.”
FINA, swimming’s world governing body, yesterday banned three Russian swimmers from competing.
Nikita Lobintsev, Vladimir Morozov and Daria Ustinova have all been rejected because their names appeared in Richard McLaren’s WADA damning independent report into state-directed doping.
The Russian authorities have withdrawn Mikhail Dovgalyuk, Yulia Efimova, Natalia Lovtcova and open-water swimmer Anastasia Krapivina from consideration as all have served doping bans before. FINA are the first international sports federation to ban any Russian athletes since the International Olympic Committee’s decision not to issue a blanket ban on the country, instead leaving the issue of eligibility up to each international federation.
Russia’s three-member archery team have been cleared to take part by the World Archery Federation.
Yulia Stepanova, the whistleblower who helped uncover the biggest doping scandal in decades, wants a review of her Olympic ban.
Stepanova’s hopes of competing next month as an independent athlete were dashed when the IOC ruled on Sunday that no Russian athlete with a doping background could take part.
Ihab Abdelrahman, the first Egyptian to win a world athletics medal with his javelin silver at last year’s world athletics championships, has been suspended for failing a doping test.
Abdelrahman said: “I’m a million per cent innocent. I feel I’m in a nightmare.
“I did urine and blood tests in February and the results were negative. I was also tested in May and the result was negative. Why is this the only positive result?”