Sir Bradley Wiggins has named the date for his Hour Record attempt, his first official appointment after leaving Team Sky. He will attempt to beat the 52.491-kilometre mark currently held by Rohan Dennis on Sunday, June 7, in London's Lee Valley Velodrome.
Team Wiggins announced the date this morning at 7:03am on Twitter. Bradley Wiggins had already said it would be in early June and that they already had booked the date for the velodrome. It appears he was waiting to close his Sky chapter – which he did with 18th place in Paris-Roubaix on Sunday – before making the day official.
The Twitter message also gave a link to buy tickets starting on Friday.
The message also showed Wiggins in his team's blue and red kit for the first time. A message next to the photography read, "#MYHOUR, SEE HOW FAR I CAN GO."
Australian Rohan Dennis (BMC Racing) rode 52.491 kilometres on February 8, the day Wiggins began his road season in the Tour of Qatar. Since then, both Dutchman Thomas Dekker and Swede Gustav Larsson tried and failed to top the mark.
"He had 52.8 with 20 minutes to go," Wiggins said immediately after Dennis' record.
"I thought he'd be capable of mid-53s, but then I said that about Jack Bobridge [51.300km]. I thought Jack could go 54. I just think that people underestimate it.
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As Sir Bradley Wiggins leaves Team Sky, we pay tribute to a man who can always be relied upon for
"It's just a hard thing. That's why I'm doing it in June, because I want to do Roubaix and then have eight weeks to get ready for it and I'll probably do the full distance in training just to be sure. I don't want to do it off the back of a stage race and have a few days to get ready for it."
Wiggins helped Sky debut in the peloton in 2010 and ended a five-year run with the British team on Sunday in Roubaix. After winning the Tour de France and the world championship time trial, he is switching back to the track to focus on the Hour Record and the 2016 Olympics.
To do so, he created and joined his own continental team, Wiggins. He will debut with the team in the Tour de Yorkshire, May 1 to 3. It could be his last race ahead of the Hour Record attempt.
Gregor Brown is an experienced cycling journalist, based in Florence, Italy. He has covered races all over the world for over a decade - following the Giro, Tour de France, and every major race since 2006. His love of cycling began with freestyle and BMX, before the 1998 Tour de France led him to a deep appreciation of the road racing season.
