Friday 9 January 2015 12:03, UK
Sir Bradley Wiggins has hinted he would like to emulate the coaching achievements of Sir Dave Brailsford when he retires from cycling after the 2016 Olympic Games.
The 2012 Tour de France winner has set up a new team called WIGGINS to aid preparations for a bid for team pursuit gold in Rio but wants the squad to continue further into the future and intends to remain “hands on”.
He is keen for the team to unearth “the next Bradley Wiggins” and has admitted that, in the process, he may look to become the next Brailsford, whose revolutionary methods have inspired a golden era in British cycling over the past decade.
Asked if he would like to follow in Brailsford’s footsteps, Wiggins told skysports.com: “Potentially. Dave has set a precedent for how things are done and how teams are managed. When my riding days are over, I want to remain hands on with the team. Hopefully the team will continue long after I have retired.
“I really want to keep working on the goals around the team – really trying to find the next Bradley Wiggins or the next Sir Chris Hoy. I want to be there to do that.
“I have chatted at length with Dave and he has passed a lot of his knowledge and wisdom on to me about what a team stands for and the core fundamentals.”
Wiggins will join his new team after leaving Team Sky on April 30, but before concentrating fully on the Olympic Games, he will attempt to break the hour record at London’s Lee Valley VeloPark in June.
The 34-year-old wants to attack the record in front of home fans in order to inspire young British cyclists, but he has not yet calculated a potential target distance.
The current best mark of 51.852km was set by Austria’s Matthias Brandle in October but Australian pair Jack Bobridge and Rohan Dennis and England’s Alex Dowsett have attempts planned in the next couple of months and are expected to go further.
However, with Wiggins being the current world and Olympic time trial champion, he is heavily fancied to surpass them.
“We haven’t set a target yet,” he said. “A lot of the guys back at Manchester have put rough estimates together based on drag and other values, but at the end of the day, it’s about actually turning up and producing.
“In some ways I feel obliged to do it with my track pedigree and being world and Olympic time trial champion. All being well, you look to break the record to start with, whatever the record will be on the day I attempt it, because there are a few other people attacking it.”
As well as inspiring young cyclists with his hour record attempt, Wiggins hopes his presence at domestic races with his new team over the next 20 months will generate interest in the British scene.
WIGGINS will be registered on the UCI Continental tour, two levels below the WorldTour, meaning one of Britain’s greatest ever cyclists could be a regular fixture at events such as the Tour Series.
Wiggins said: “Rather than disappearing into another team, I think riding for WIGGINS is going to have much more impact, and also bring some limelight to the UK scene, because we have got an incredible domestic scene with the Tour Series week in week out during the summer in towns and cities throughout the country.
“We have the Tour of Britain, the RideLondon-Surrey Classic and the London Nocturne and the Revolution Series, and our team is going to be competing in a lot of those, so hopefully it will bring a lot of kudos to them.”
