New Linda McCartney Pro Cycling Team signing Bradley Wiggins won a team pursuit silver medal at the World Track Championships last night. He and his Great Britain teammates Paul Manning and former Linda McCartney men Chris Newton and Jonny Clay were edged out by Germany in an exciting final after a pulsating competition.

The team pursuit is raced over 4000 metres, and two teams of four start on opposite sides of the track to each other. At the gun, they set of in pursuit of their opponents in a team formation that is one of the great sights in cycling.

Manchester Velodrome was packed to the rafters to see if their heroes could improve on their brilliant bronze in Sydney. The answer was an emphatic yes, as the British quartet caught the illustrious French foursome with two laps of their semi-final still remaining.

The Germans had not been faced in the World Championships since 1973, Britain's only other final appearance. There, in San Sebastian, the Germans were leading the British, but a terrible crash involving an official at the edge of the track brought the whole German team crashing to the boards. That should have meant a first and only gold medal in this discipline for Great Britain, but the quartet famously refused to accept their gold medals in a triumph of sportsmanship that has never been forgotten. Before the final there was an emotional reunion for the men who opposed each other in Spain 27 years ago.

The Germans are the reigning World and Olympic Champions, but with home advantage Great Britain believed they could run them close. They did, but not close enough, the Germans slowly eking out a lead that became two seconds by the time they shot across the line, recording one of the quickest times seen in this velodrome for the event.