IT’S TEAM WIGGO!
Brad goes for Rio gold ... with his own squad
SIR BRADLEY Wiggins yesterday announced that he has set up his own cycling team in a bid to win gold on the track at the Rio 2016 Olympics.
The 2012 Tour de France winner has assembled a nine-man squad, composed entirely of British riders, and will be funded by Sky but known simply as ‘Wiggins’.
He is expected to make his debut for his new team in June when he tries to break the individual world hour record at the London Velodrome.
‘The whole idea of the team was to facilitate our ambitions for Rio and winning gold there,’ Wiggins told Sky Sports News.
‘It’s track-based and we have got a lot of the guys from the track programme in there so that we can stay and race and train together all year round and get exactly what we need in terms of achieving the end goal, which is winning the team pursuit in Rio.’
The switch means Wiggins, who will be 36 by the time of the Rio Games and who has suggested he will retire afterwards, will not ride in the Tour de France again.
Wiggins’ new team-mates include the cream of Britain’s young talent, such as Owain Doull and Jon Dibben, as well as more experienced riders such as Andy Tennant and Steven Burke, who should all be in the reckoning for the four-man team pursuit squad for Rio.
Wiggins (below) has three medals — bronze, silver and gold — in this event from the Sydney, Athens and Beijing Olympic Games, but the competition for Rio will be fierce, with no guarantee that he will make the final four.
‘It’s not a given that Brad will be in the team in Rio,’ Shane Sutton, British Cycling’s technical director, said recently. ‘ But when Brad gets a focus it’s very hard to knock him off track.’
The four-time Olympic champion, 34, will continue to race for Team Sky, where he has had a fractious relationship with team- mate Chris Froome, until April and his final outing will be at the Paris-Roubaix Challenge. Wiggins, who was ninth last year, believes he can be the first Brit to win the tough one-day Classic over the cobbles known as the ‘Hell of the North’.
‘Cycling has given me everything,’ he said. ‘Now I want to build something to inspire kids and to reach all those people who might be on the fringes of the sport. ‘My message is simple: if I can do it, then so can you.’
Referring to his bid to beat Matthias Brandle’s individual hour record, Wiggins added: ‘The next 12-year-old might come along that may be inspired by watching the hour record like I was inspired watching Chris Boardman win the gold in Barcelona.’