Vogel has rare wins over British cyclists

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By Roger Vaughan

RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 16 AAP - Sprinting for an Olympic gold medal at more than 60km/h, the last thing Kristina Vogel needed was for her bike saddle to break.

Asked what went through her mind, the German cycling star replied: "just `f..., what's going on?'

"It was crazy ... I was trying not to crash."

Somehow, Vogel stayed up upright when the mishap happened metres from the finish line.

And also impressively, she beat British riders for an Olympic gold medal - a rare achievement at the Rio Velodrome.

After dispatching Katy Marchant in their semi-final, Vogel survived the near-disaster with her saddle in the second heat against Rebecca James to win the gold medal two heats to nil.

"I don't care about where they're from, I just race face-to-face," she said.

"Who cares where they're from?

"But I'm proud of them both."

Vogel raised eyebrows on Monday when she said it was "very questionable" how the British were dominant yet again in Olympic track cycling.

But she stressed after her gold medal win that she was not accusing them of cheating.

"I'm just saying, it's so crazy that when the Brits come to the Olympic Games, they just kill everyone," she said.

"I don't say they're taking any drugs or they have a bike with an engine.

"I'm just saying we're wondering that they're always that f..ing (good) at the Games - nothing else."

As for calling their achievements questionable, Vogel said: "of course it's a question.

"We work that hard for four years and we win medals at the worlds.

"We just want to know what they're doing right."