Rio Olympics 2016: Ed Clancy admits Team GB’s golden team pursuit bid was nearly scuppered by a food poisoning scare

ED CLANCY has admitted GB’s team pursuit aces golden tilt was almost scuppered by dodgy food in Rio’s athletes’ village.

Riders have complained after getting back from Brazil about the quality of the grub at the Olympics. Mark Cavendish branded the fare “terrible”.

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But Clancy, 31, admitted that he got a tummy bug just days before he was due to compete in the biggest competition of his career.

He said: “It was three or four days before we started racing. I wasn’t too bad, a bit of a dodgy stomach, I got over it pretty quick.

“The village in the food hall wasn’t quite as polished as London but it was OK. The locals were great in Rio, they put on a really good show, the village was great, the velodrome was fantastic.

“Every athlete really appreciates what those guys sacrificed to put on a good show.

None of us died out there, we’re still walking, none of us had any issues when we were racing.

“Owain Doull had a little bit more serious food poisoning a couple of days after we finished, although his was probably alcohol-induced.”

The four team pursuit aces including Doull, Bradley Wiggins and Steven Burke ended up beating the Aussies in the final and smashing the world record in a best of 3min 50.265sec – before celebrating with some nights out for the next few days.

Luckily it was after the Games had finished that new Team Sky signing Doull got food poisoning after a few nights on the tiles.

Doull added: “The one thing I planned on going to watch was the triathlon, but I got food poisoning. One of the things that didn’t help mine was three days on the p**s, so my immune system was a bit run down.

“The food was one of the frustrating points of the Olympics to be honest.

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“I never did London, but I rode in Glasgow at the Commonwealth Games.  There it was really good, everything was well catered.

“In Rio it just wasn’t great. It is frustrating when you dedicate four years of your life towards that one goal and you become at someone else’s mercy when it comes to food.”

ED CLANCY and Owain Doull are racing back on the track in the UK at Revolution in Manchester on September 17. Tickets are available now: cyclingrevolution.com