WIGGINS TO RIDE MANCHESTER WORLD CUP

Bradley Wiggins's first gold medal individual pursuit Olympics 2008

Bradley Wiggins will ride the Madison at the Manchester World Cup next weekend.

Wiggins had been scheduled to partner Erik Zabel at the Dortmund and Munich Six Day races instead of the Manchester World Cup. These Six Days are Zabel's farewell before retirement.

However, his contract to ride at Munich was cancelled when one of the event's main sponsors pulled out in light of Stefan Schumacher's positive drug test for the banned substance CERA.

Wiggins said: "They [the Munich Six organisers] had to get rid of some of the more expensive riders and they obviously weren't going to get rid of Zabel because it's his farewell event.

"I still had a contract to do Dortmund but to be honest I would rather do Manchester now.

"I'm not doing the individual or team pursuit, just the Madison with G (Geraint Thomas).

"I have got a bit of form because I was training for the Six Days. I am really looking forward to it, especially because it is a chance to ride in front of the home crowd."

GREAT BRITAIN SQUAD FOR MANCHESTER WORLD CUP

Great Britain

Steven Burke

Ed Clancy

Matt Crampton

David Daniell

Geraint Thomas

Rob Hayles

Chris Newton

Anna Blyth

Alex Greenfield

Wendy Houvenaghel

Lucy Martin

Jess Varnish

100% ME SQUAD FOR MANCHESTER WORLD CUP

Mark Christian

Andrew Fenn

Luke Rowe

Erick Rowsell

Elizabeth Armitstead

Katie Colclough

Joanna Rowsell

SKY+HD SQUAD FOR MANCHESTER WORLD CUP

Ross Edgar

Jason Kenny

Jamie Staff

Victoria Pendleton

2008-09 WORLD CUP TRACK PROGRAMME

Oct 31-Nov 2 Manchester (Great Britain)

Nov 20-22 Melbourne (Australia)

Dec 11-13 Cali (Colombia)

Jan 16-18 Beijing (China)

Feb 13-15 Copenhagen (Denmark)

EXTERNAL LINK

Official Manchester World Cup site

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Sports journalist Lionel Birnie has written professionally for Sunday Times, Procycling and of course Cycling Weekly. He is also an author, publisher, and co-founder of The Cycling Podcast. His first experience covering the Tour de France came in 1999, and he has presented The Cycling Podcast with Richard Moore and Daniel Friebe since 2013. He founded Peloton Publishing in 2010 and has ghostwritten and published the autobiography of Sean Kelly, as well as a number of other sports icons.