Gold-winning cyclist sets sights on Paris Olympics

Dan Bigham won individual and team gold medals at the European Track Cycling Championships

The Great Britain's men's cycling squad have set their sights on this summer's Olympics after winning a major European race, one of the group said.

Dan Bigham, from Newcastle-under-Lyme, said the team was now in the run-up to "the biggest race of our lives".

Great Britain won the team pursuit at last week's European Track Cycling Championships.

The squad must continue its strong run to make sure they qualify for the Paris Olympics, Bigham said.

In last week's win, Great Britain beat world champions Denmark by 1.154 seconds in the team pursuit, the first time they had won the event since 2015.

"We're absolutely buzzing that we can do those kinds of times against the world champions," Bigham told BBC Radio Stoke.

"It's massive considering where we are in the Olympic cycle."

Dan Bigham (far left) with his team-mates at last week's European Track Cycling Championships

Bigham also won a gold medal in the men's individual pursuit final last week.

He said he got into the sport at a relatively late stage, while he was studying motorsports engineering at university.

Cycling combined his love for sport with his studies in how to "make people fast with maths and physics", Bigham said.

He added he enjoyed helping his Great Britain teammates analyse every detail which could affect their racing times - including what clothes they wore.

"You pick the wrong socks and you could have a silver medal instead of a gold," he said.

Standard socks bought from a bike shop compared to the ones the Great Britain team use could make such a difference, Bigham said.

"In a four minute event, there might be about two seconds' difference. In a pair of socks. It's a massive impact," he added.