Wiggins: Hour Record is beatable, but I won't be having another go

Sir Bradley Wiggins says he plans to keep racing until the end of 2016, unless another job offer comes in

Bradley Wiggins in his UCI Hour Record attempt in 2015
(Image credit: Watson)

Sir Bradley Wiggins has ruled out making an attempt at breaking his own UCI Hour Record, even though he believes the mark he set in June is beatable.

Wiggins rode to 54.526km at the Lee Valley velodrome to beat Alex Dowsett's mark of 52.937km, set just a month earlier in Manchester.

In an interview with the Guardian, Wiggins said his time to attempt the record again has passed, with the 2012 Tour de France winner now focussing solely on the Rio Olympics next August.

“The time to do [the Hour] would be now, but my body shape is changing for the team pursuit and it’s gone further away from what it should be for the Hour,” he said.

“I have to accept that the Hour was what it was, a record of its time. There is a tinge of disappointment as I wanted to go past 55 kilometres and get past Tony Rominger’s record [of 55.291km] if conditions had been different. The record is beatable and it will be beaten but another 700 metres would have made people think twice.”

Watch Sir Bradley Wiggins overtake his minute man at a time trial in Hull

The Rio Games are top of his priority list for the new season, with an eighth Olympic medal within his reach if selected for the team pursuit squad.

But Wiggins insists he won't hang up his helmet immediately after the Games, when his focus will turn to six-day racing, including making his debut in London's new event.

“I’d love to do London, and go to Gent 17 years after I first rode,” Wiggins added. “It’s another of these little historic things I want to go back and revisit one last time. I want to go there and ride with Iljo Keisse. It’s something we’ve been talking about for 10 years. I want to keep racing until the end of the year rather than stop in Rio.”

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Stuart Clarke is a News Associates trained journalist who has worked for the likes of the British Olympic Associate, British Rowing and the England and Wales Cricket Board, and of course Cycling Weekly. His work at Cycling Weekly has focused upon professional racing, following the World Tour races and its characters.