Bradley Wiggins confirmed for British Rowing Indoor Championships… in Lee Valley Velodrome

Sir Bradley Wiggins will 'take on the Great Britain rowing team' at the event in London on Saturday, December 9
Nigel Wynn

British Rowing confirmed on Friday morning that Sir Bradley Wiggins will take part in its Indoor Championships on Saturday, December 9.

Wiggins has swapped pedals for oars this year, and said in the summer that he has not ruled out attempting to join the GB rowing squad for the 2020 Olympic Games and go for a sixth gold medal.

The 37-year-old has been coached by Olympic rowing gold medallist James Cracknell, and has posted online several pictures of himself in training over the past few months.

The open event uses static rowing machines and features a wide range of age categories and race distances.

Despite the change in sport, Wiggins will be in very familiar surroundings at the Indoor Championships as it is being held at the Lee Valley Velodrome in London, scene of the 2012 Olympics.

Although Wiggins did not participate on the track at the 2012 Games – he won gold in the road time trial instead – it was the venue for his penultimate cycling event, the London Six Day in 2016. He subsequently retired from cycling a few weeks later after the Ghent Six.

According to British Rowing, Wiggins will “take on the GB Rowing Team at the British Rowing Indoor Championships this December”, posing the question “Wiggo vs GB Rower – who will win….?”.

>>> Bradley Wiggins ‘breaks silence’ and requests source of ‘Jiffy bag’ allegation

Wiggins has been in the news this week after UK Anti-Doping announced that there would be no charges brought as a result of its investigation into British Cycling and Team Sky relating to a jiffy bag delivered from BC to Sky at the 2011 Critérium du Dauphiné.

The package reportedly contained Fluimucil medicine for Wiggins, who won the Dauphiné that year. UKAD concluded that it was “impossible” to determine what was in the package due to lack of evidence.

Wiggins said in his own statement issued on Wednesday that he and his family had been through a “living hell” as the result of “innuendo and speculation”.