BIKE shops in Colchester are enjoying an Olympics boom – thanks to Team GB’s record-breaking cyclists.

Bradley Wiggins and his teammates have been credited with the surge following a flurry of medals in the velodrome and road races.

Paul Thomas, manager of Cycle Revolution at Peartree Business Centre, in Stanway , said turnover had increased by about 20 per cent.

He said: “We opened a second, high-end store, predominantly road bikes.

“We have benefited from positive press and the results of our fantastic British riders.

“The last two or three weeks we are getting people buying road bikes, saying they are inspired by what they have seen on TV.

“The cycling trade has bucked the general economic downturn.”

Cycle Life Colchester, in St Botolph’s Street, saw a boom over the weekend, with customers watching the Olympics, wanting to have a go.

Manager Daniel Higgins said the acceleration in sales had come at the right time.

He said: “The Olympics have been a great advert for us. We have been very busy.

“It’s not just Bradley Wiggins’s gold medal. People are talking about all the cycling gold medals – it’s Sir Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton too.

Mr Higgins is hopeful cycling shops will continue to reap the awards when the BMX events start in the Olympic Park start tomorrow and the mountain biking at Hadleigh Farm begins on Saturday.

He said: “I think this could last until the end of the six-week summer holidays.”