Dick's Pics

By RichardDonkin

Olympic gold

A golden moment as Bradley Wiggins powers through Cobham in Surrey on his way to a place in the record books and an Olympic Gold for Great Britain in the men's time trial.

I almost didn't get out for this - worked all morning on my book, then couldn't find the car keys, and wasn't even sure where to go because of the road closures. By the time I reached Cobham, the women's race was almost over and the crowds were packing the sides of the road. But they thinned out a bit between the races and I found a spot by the kerb. Some people were sporting stick-on Wiggins sideburns, some were chalking messages in the road, French-style, and Union Jacks were everywhere. To think some people didn't want this in Britain.

Unlike the road races at the weekend I had the opportunity to experiment a bit with set ups, but couldn't make my mind up. The problem was, I wasn't keeping count of the competitors and I'd just decided to try one close-up on a manual focus when Chris Froome rode by. I'd pre-focused the camera on a spot in the road so the only sharp one of him was when he was dead level and his whole head and torso filled the frame.

I'd gone back to auto-focus for Wiggins. It's not a full bike shot but I'm happy with it all the same. One unplanned detail I like is the striped shirt that helps his face outine and adds to the feeling of speed - well he was going like the clappers. Some more from the race here.

He was last-but-one in the seeded running order and, after the final man passed, a lot of people filed in to Cobham recreation ground where a screen had been erected. The atmosphere was fantastic as people cheered Wiggins and Froome to the finish. But I should add that on the road every single rider who passed got a big cheer.

I'm going to the 100 metres final on Sunday but I can't believe that I'll see anything there to compare with seeing Britain's Tour de France Winner ride to Olympic Gold. Wiggins has now won more Olympic medals than any other British athlete - four gold, one silver and two bronze.

Is this the best Olympic Games ever? Boris Johnson thinks so.

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