Wiggins vows to earn Team Sky Tour place

Former Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins vowed to earn his place on the Sky team to support defending champion Chris Froome in July after finishing ninth at Paris-Roubaix.

Wiggins put in an impressive showing at Sunday’s ‘Hell of the North’ by coming home in a 10-strong group 20 seconds behind winner Niki Terpstra.

He had to settle for ninth in the 257km cobbled classic but a week after showing he could manage such distances with the leaders by finishing 32nd at the Tour of Flanders, less than two minutes back from winner Fabian Cancellara, the 2012 Tour winner is focused on winning a place on Sky’s team.

Wiggins said that although he wants to come back for another crack at the ‘Queen of the Classics’, this result hasn’t changed his plans to return to the track next year, nor to try to be a part of July’s Tour.

But he admitted he is not in pole position for that, as British Cycling Coach Shane Sutton said earlier this week.

“I’d love to come back (to Paris-Roubaix) the next few years,” said Wiggins, a fourtime Olympic gold medalist, including three times on the track.

“But I don’t think it changes anything, I’ve stated I want to go back to the track next year for the Olympics (in 2016).”