Bradley Wiggins unveils new team to be sponsored by Sky

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/jan/08/bradley-wiggins-new-team-sky

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The first official details emerged of the new team to be set up by Sir Bradley Wiggins, which will be led by the multiple Olympic gold medallist and 2012 Tour de France winner when his contract with Team Sky closes at the end of April following his attempt to win the Paris-Roubaix Classic.

The team is named WIGGINS; it will be sponsored by Sky – although it cannot use its name as the official title – and as was widely rumoured it will include several of the riders who are bidding to ride the team pursuit for Great Britain at the Rio Olympics, which is Wiggins’s final target before retirement in 2016.

“Our ultimate goal is winning the team pursuit in Rio,” Wiggins said. “It’s to facilitate everything we need for the track programme. The team is track-based and we have got a lot of the guys from the track programme in there so that we can stay and race and train together all year round. We can get exactly what we need in terms of achieving the end goal, which is winning the team pursuit in Rio.”

The UCI confirmed three days ago that the team had been given a continental licence – two levels below Team Sky – under the name Team Wiggins and that its team director would be the former professional Simon Cope.

That makes them the sixth British squad to be registered in that category, and it will enable them to ride major events such as the Tour de Yorkshire, Tour of Britain and RideLondon. They are also expected to ride domestic races such as the Tour Series criteriums while Wiggins’s name and reputation should earn them invitations to events abroad.

A news release from the team stated that further details of the team’s bike and equipment suppliers, colours, logo, and team jersey will be unveiled in spring this year, together with the team’s racing calendar. It was also confirmed that Wiggins will attempt the world hour record later this year, in the new team’s colours.

Wiggins’s team-mates from the start of May will be his fellow team pursuiters Andy Tennant, Owain Doull, Jon Dibben, Mark Christian and the London gold medallist Steven Burke, together with Daniel Patten, who raced in the US in 2014, the Olympic academy rider Michael Thompson and the GB mountain bike academy rider Ian Paton.

Burke, Tennant, Doull and Christian all formed part of the Great Britain squad that won the gold medal in the team pursuit at the London World Cup in December; the fifth rider from London, Ed Clancy, has opted to remain with his trade squad of long-standing, Team JLT-Condor.

“Cycling has given me everything,” said Wiggins in a press release. “Now I want to build something to inspire kids and to reach all those people who might be on the fringes of the sport. We’ve seen cycling grow in popularity over the years and I want WIGGINS to inspire a new generation of cyclists.”

Earlier this week it was confirmed that Wiggins had signed a final contract with Team Sky to take him up to the end of April, enabling him to make his attempt on Paris-Roubaix on 12 April before transferring to his new team and attempting the hour record.

This has been broken twice since the UCI rejigged the rules last year, and currently stands to the Austrian Matthias Brändle. There are likely to be at least three or four attempts – one scheduled by the Briton Alex Dowsett for 28 February – before Wiggins gets his chance.

There have been rumours that Wiggins might try for the record in Mallorca, but he said on Thursday that his venue of choice would be in London at the Olympic velodrome. “It would have to be really,” he said. “The plan is to do it in June. Again, the next 12-year-old might come along that may be inspired by watching the hour record like I was inspired watching Chris Boardman win the gold in Barcelona.”