Britain, Wiggins is on loan, don't break him

Wiggins himself said it while being interviewed by the vacant orange footceleb Lineker - cycling is, remains, a minority sport. He went to France 6 weeks ago as an unknown, outside cycling circles, and suddenly finds himself pitched into adulation and calls for Sirness (daft though I think the concept itself is, a marker was laid down after Beijing with Hoy and Holmes - Wiggins has become the first British cyclist to win the Tour de France in 99 attempts, AND now has the highest Olympic medal haul of any Brit, it's pretty impressive).

He's our Brad. You may borrow him Britain, but we want him back. In one piece. Annoyingly the t-shirt I'd bought in celebration of his Tour victory had an attempted delivery today, and instead of being left with a neighbour, was taken back to the depot. Buggrit. Would have made the blip easy. Ah well.

I actually interviewed Brad's wife, Kath, for my cycling website 2 or 3 years back. And not about Brad. She comes from a cycling background, and it was really interesting to find out the riding she did.

LOADS of Brad pics on Blipfoto today (and at least one that's actually Bronze medalist Chris Froome (different bike; different helmet markings; different sideburns), but I don't have the heart to let on) - today is a day for highs.

Which is why it's so depressing to learn that a cyclist was killed 'in collision with' an Olympic bus tonight. Sporting success will, hopefully, get more people out on their bikes; but changing an entire road culture (bearing in mind we don't know the actual facts of the incident) will take much longer, and is a much bigger task than convincing people that sideburns are cool and it's time for a Mod revival.

Another busy day at work. No let up tomorrow either. It's actually good though, easier to handle with the team around, and contenting myself with dreams of new bikes. Had my eye on an On-One Macinato to replace my long-departed fixed wheel frame, since I have about 60% of the parts ready to strap straight on. But it's entirely impractical for what I'm looking for at the moment - maybe one for a Christmas list (it's cheap enough).

Instead I'm looking at rigid MTB forks for my venerable Cotic Soul, stick some 26" slicks on, a pair of flat pedals, and turn it into a fast, fun, urban machine to nip to the shops and generally hack about the place. After all, it must be about two years since I mountain biked properly so the bike is going to waste otherwise. And it means I get to eye up bike parts.

p.s. speaking to someone who works on the same floor as me, in our press office, whose husband is a 6'5", 20 stone, Royal Marine, judo-ist, and is fighting in the Olympics on Friday. Must be fab, even if he's an outsider, to be able to go and watch him fight, to hear the crowd cheer when he walks out. Did you know that the oldest beach volleyballer at London 2012 is 40. Which is how old I'll be when Rio 2016 rolls around. And that one half of the gold medal rowing team from this morning didn't start rowing till 4 years ago, just before Beijing. Time to dig out the budgie-smugglers and suncream...