Gold medal No2: Individual pursuit 2008

It was a funny one, 2008. The day before we left for Beijing, when we were at the holding camp down in Wales, Brad had a viral infection. And he was undecided whether he was even going to get on the bus. So in the morning we did a two-hour ride in the rain, me, him and Jan van Eijden, the GB track coach. I remember it like it was yesterday. He decided in the end, after a lot of persuasion, that he was going to travel.

So he won those medals in 2008 without being in the right place. But that is the magnitude of the guy. He was not healthy. You saw that really clearly in the team pursuit. If you look at the data, Brad only contributed about 2½ laps.

From an IP point of view, he went out there and was geared down for the final. He just wanted to win the medal. Prior to the illness, he was looking at breaking Chris Boardman’s world record. After it, he just did the job. He is a dog with a bone, see? Once he is locked on, there is no getting it off him. The way Brad rode the IP was a champion’s ride. Not the time, the performance. I remember there were a lot of questions over whether he or Burkey [Steven Burke] would get that fourth spot in the team pursuit later in the week. I had to make a decision. And in the end, it was pretty simple. You want to go to the line with one of the biggest players in the world. It gives confidence to the other three guys. We had two young ones in Ed [Clancy] and G [Geraint Thomas]. Brad is a gem in that way. You look at the Pendletons, the Hoys, the Wigginses … big players, they lift others. The current team pursuit squad have definitely been lifted by his presence. Would [Owain] Doull have stepped up the way he has? Would Ed have rediscovered his appetite? I wonder. Brad is a gigantic leader.