Having finally added the world title to his Olympic timetrial crown from two years ago, Bradley Wiggins has set himself two new targets: winning Paris-Roubaix and setting a new hour record.
The 34-year-old Briton beat three-time reigning champion Tony Martin of Germany to the world title in Ponferrada, Spain, on Wednesday, with Dutch youngster Tom Dumoulin taking third place.
But now the 2012 Tour de France winner, a four-time Olympic champion and winner of prestigious races such as the Criterium du Dauphine (twice), Tour de Romandie and Paris-Nice — not to mention lower key events such as his home Tour of Britain and the Tour of California — says he will target Paris-Roubaix and the world hour record next year, before focusing on the track and the team pursuit at the Olympics in Rio in 2016.
But he said he will not compete at another World Championships, having won silver medals in 2011 and 2013.
“To add the world title on the road to the Olympic one — I had a couple of second places — (but) I could have lived with it if I never won it in my career so it’s always nice to add it,” said Wiggins, a six-time world champion on the track in individual and team pursuits.
“I always said after London (the Olympics) that anything else I got was a bonus. It’s nice to end the season like this having missed the Tour and stuff through the year.
“I worked towards this and trained specifically for this event since the Commonwealth Games in July, so yes, it’s been good.”
Although he will return to the track for the next Games — and the hour record is also attempted in a velodrome — Wiggins said he’s not quite finished with road racing.
He finished ninth at Paris-Roubaix in April and believes that’s a race he can win.
“This time next year it will be less than a year from the Olympics in Rio so I will be in full track mode for the team pursuit,” he said when explaining why this would be his last World Championships.
“I can’t imagine doing a trip to America to do the worlds next year, I just don’t see it fitting in.
“Post Rio I’m not going to go to Qatar to ride. I will be 37 then so I’m not going to do the masters, this will be the last one.”
He added: “I’d love to win Roubaix, obviously I was up there this year. I want to focus more on it next year and off the back of that really focus on the hour record rather than trying to go for the hour record next week off the back of this.
“(I want to) focus on that and do it as a project and get the most out of that one attempt (on the hour record),” Wiggins said, just a week after 43-year-old German Jens Voigt set a new hour world record of 51.115 kilometres.
“Also it will give me something to do next year (as he won’t be on Sky’s Tour team) and also to finish off with hopefully another shot at another gold medal in Rio with the team pursuit would be a nice way to end it all.”