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Friday April 26, 2024

Wiggins to swap pedals for oars

By Reuters
November 18, 2017
LONDON: Retired cycling champion Bradley Wiggins is to turn his sights on a new sporting challenge when he competes in next month’s British Rowing Indoor Championships in London.
The 37-year-old former Tour de France winner and five-time Olympic cycling gold medallist will take part in the rowing machine race over 2,000 metres on December 9 at London’s Olympic velodrome, where he set a one-hour cycling world record.
Wiggins, Britain’s most decorated Olympian with eight medals in total, retired from cycling last December but has since talked about targeting a sixth Olympic gold — only this time on the water.
“I’m going to see how far I can take it, maybe a sixth Olympic gold? I might be being a bit delusional, but the times suggest I’m not,” Wiggins said at a corporate event in June.
British Rowing confirmed that Wiggins would be competing in the event, which features some of Britain’s top Olympic oarsmen but is open to competitors from all over Britain between the ages of 11 and 88.The news of the switch to a new sport for the man popularly known as ‘Wiggo’ to his British fans has also delighted his rowing competitors.