Bradley Wiggins admits Rio Olympics will probably be his last major event

Sir Bradley Wiggins says the Rio Olympic Games will probably be his final major event, but he won't hang up his wheels straight away

Bradley Wiggins, Track World Championships 2016
(Image credit: Andy Jones)

Sir Bradley Wiggins admits that he will wind his cycling career down after the Olympics this August, with the Rio Games likely to be his last major event.

The 2012 Tour de France winner has returned to the track with the ambition of winning his fifth Olympic gold medal and came away from last weekend's Track World Championships with a gold and a silver medal.

But while he hopes to continue racing with his eponymous development team in the future, Wiggins believes he will not race another major event after August.

“If I was to leave the Worlds where they were, bowing out of international competition as world champion in London, I couldn’t leave it on a better place,” he said at the launch of his new range of children's bikes, in collaboration with Halfords.

Bradley Wiggins overtakes his minute man at the Hull RC time trial

Wiggins will hope to trump Australia in the team pursuit in Rio, having had to settle for silver at the World Championships, but he doesn't believe Team GB will win as many medals as they did in London four years ago.

“I think we’ll win three to four gold medals on the track, which is quite a little bit less than it was in London,” he said.

“But it would be something to top London – everything was building towards London, in every sport, it felt, right from when Lottery funding started in 1997. It reached a crescendo and I think it will dip a bit. We’ll still be successful but I don’t think we’ll repeat London. Maybe in time.”

Wiggins won't hang up his wheels immediately after Rio, though. He said after winning the Madison gold medal with Mark Cavendish that he would like to ride the London and Ghent Six Days with the Manxman and admitted that he'd still turn out for a few local time trials.

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