Wiggins says second Hour attempt unlikely – but he now plans to continue racing beyond Rio

Sir Bradley Wiggins says that his riding this year has been ‘like a breath of fresh air’ and he now plans to continue racing beyond the Rio Olympics. He does however say that a second attempt on the Hour record is highly unlikely.

Wiggins told The Guardian that he would like to race the Tour of Britain for Team Wiggins, followed by the six-day races in London and Ghent. He won the latter event in 2003 with the Australian Matthew Gilmore and is keen to return.

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“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 Ilyo 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. I’ve been loving riding this year, it’s been like a breath of fresh air.”

Such a plan would of course depend on other opportunities which may have arisen in the meantime. “They might ask me to present Match of the Day. [But] if I haven’t got a job next year I will keep racing.”

For now, the focus is Rio, where he will race the team pursuit – something he says is likely to rule out a second attempt on the Hour record.

“The time to do it 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.

“I have to accept 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.”

Instead, it seems he envisages phasing his riding career out while remaining at Team Wiggins. “I will keep training – I don’t see why I would stop doing that – and I might slip into the odd race that is easy to do, like a player-manager.”

He said he would continue to compete, even if it means racing local time trials or the World Masters Track Cycling Championships.