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| Cyclist Sir Bradley Wiggins celebrates winning a fifth Olympic gold medal of his career |
Retired cycling champion Bradley Wiggins is to turn his sights on a new sporting challenge when he competes in next monthโs British Rowing Indoor Championships in London.
The 37-year-old former Tour de France winner and five-times Olympic cycling gold medallist will take part in the rowing machine race over 2,000 metres on Dec. 9 at Londonโs Olympic velodrome, where he set a one-hour cycling world record.
Wiggins, Britainโs most decorated Olympian with eight medals in total, retired from cycling last December but has since talked about targeting a sixth Olympic gold โ only this time on the water.
โIโm 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 Iโm not,โ Wiggins said at a corporate event in June.
British Rowing confirmed that Wiggins would be competing in the event, which features some of Britainโs 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 โWiggoโ to his British fans has also delighted his rowing competitors.
โItโs really exciting that Wiggo is going to be racing,โ said Matt Rossiter, bronze medallist in the menโs four at the 2017 World Championships and who will also be competing at the indoor championships.
โOn a personal level, Iโm a massive cycling fan and heโs probably a large reason for that. What he did in the Tour (de France) in 2012 was absolutely immense.
โHe has to have one of the biggest engines ever in world sport, and for him to try and tune it to rowing is awesome. To be lining up against one of your ultimate sporting heroes is an absolute privilege. He just better not beat me.โ
Wiggins will no doubt be relieved to be back making headlines in the sporting arena after finding himself embroiled in recent off-track controversy.
On Wednesday UK Anti-Doping announced after a long-running saga that there would be no charges over the delivery of a โmysteryโ medical package for Wiggins at the Criterium du Dauphine road race in 2011.
Wiggins has complained that the investigation โfelt nothing less than a witch huntโ and said his life had been made a โliving hellโ by the episode.
