Gold medal No4: Time trial 2012

There have been a lot of highlights over the past 20 years, but one of the images that will stay with me my entire life is Brad opening the London Games. The Tour had been huge emotionally. It was a bit like this year in the sense that he knew he had won it from quite early on, provided he did not fall or have some sort of disaster. And after that, it was a question of how he was going to manage the mental shift from the Tour to the Olympics, what with all the Wiggomania. He did it brilliantly. He didn’t miss a beat.

When we came back, I got the call from Seb Coe to say, “We would like Brad to come and ring the bell to open to the Games”. It was off the charts! I remember being in the green room beforehand with all these famous people, but Brad just being cool, saying hi to everyone. They told him to “just go out there and ring the bell ‘dong’ and then come back in”. But he had to go and peek out to have a look just to get an idea.

When it started, he walked out and I stood behind videoing it. It was incredible. I actually quite often watch it – well you do, don’t you, everyone spends time on their phone, late at night, old pictures or whatever – and I quite often watch that. The further away it is, the more surreal it becomes. It was insane. And he was shaving his legs about an hour later preparing for the road race the next day.

The time trial at those Games was one of the best examples of pacing I have ever seen. Among the really top guys, pacing is the big difference, really. He may be the best ever at it.

On that day, I followed Chris [Froome] in the car while Tim Kerrison and Sean Yates were with Brad. But I remember afterwards: the purple throne, Brad waving Vs at the crowd, very nonchalant. It was as close to rock’n’roll as cycling gets.