By Ziad Chaudry and Ben Kosky CYCLING ace Bradley Wiggins will have to wait another four years to make Olympic history after missing out on the chance of a gold medal hat-trick in Beijing. Wiggins – who had already won gold in both the men s individual an

By Ziad Chaudry and Ben Kosky

CYCLING ace Bradley Wiggins will have to wait another four years to make Olympic history after missing out on the chance of a gold medal hat-trick in Beijing.

Wiggins - who had already won gold in both the men's individual and team pursuit events - could have become the first Briton in a century to claim three titles at a single Games.

But the exhausted 28-year-old from Maida Vale and team-mate Mark Cavendish flopped in the men's Madison event on Tuesday, finishing joint eighth.

Instead, the honour of matching swimmer Henry Cotton's record - set at the London Games of 1908 - went to fellow GB cyclist Chris Hoy, who took gold in the individual and team sprints and the keirin.

Victory would also have taken Wiggins ahead of rowing legend Steve Redgrave's tally of six Olympic medals and made him the country's most successful Olympian of all time.

It means that, fitness and form permitting, he will have the opportunity to achieve that landmark on home ground at London 2012.

Despite Tuesday's disappointment, overall it was a superb Olympic campaign for Wiggins and his table-topping Team GB track cycling colleagues at Beijing's Laoshan Velodrome.

The Londoner kicked off in fine style by successfully defending his 4km individual pursuit title, where he was too good for New Zealand's Hayden Roulston in the final and won by nearly three seconds.

And on Monday Wiggins joined Paul Manning, Geraint Thomas and Ed Clancy to claim the top podium place in the team pursuit, setting a world record time of three minutes 53.314 seconds.

That was also the victory that ensured Team GB their biggest haul of Olympic gold medals since Antwerp in 1920.

"It's just fantastic to be part of this team," said Wiggins. "We've come a long way in four years.