Bradley Wiggins relishing reunion with Mark Cavendish at Worlds Madison on Sunday

Sir Bradley Wiggins is looking forward to rekindling his “natural partnership” with Mark Cavendish in the Madison at the Track World Championships in London on Sunday, eight years after the duo first won a rainbow jersey in the discipline.

Although both Wiggins and Cavendish are focussed on other events at the Worlds — Wiggins is contesting the team pursuit and Cavendish the omnium — the Madison, Wiggins told press before the Championships began, is their chance to have fun as it is no longer an Olympic discipline.

“It’s just a natural partnership for us both, we’ve both been successful in the past together,” he said.

“The Madison is just a bit of a fun thing at the Worlds anyway. There’s nothing riding on it other than you get to be world champion for a year.”

The pair was last Madison world champions in 2008 and both rode the event at the Beijing Games in 2008, the last time it appeared in the Olympics. They reunited for the first time since then to contest the event at the Derby Revolution last August.

“The first time it [the Madison] came up was riding this thing in Derby last year,” Wiggins continued. “I was like ‘come on it might be a bit embarrassing’ and he [Cavendish] was like it doesn’t matter if we finish 10th people just want to see us race.

“I think that’s the same with the Worlds. He’s focussing on the omnium, I’m focussed on the team pursuit — we haven’t done a hand sling since August. I think the key thing is people just want to see us race.

“Once we get there an hour before we’ll go right what are we actually going to do here? Let’s have a think about this.”