Team Wiggins starts taking shape with focus on Rio 2016

The domestic cycling team being launched by Sir Bradley Wiggins, which he hopes will underpin his attempt to win a fifth Olympic gold medal at Rio 2016, is reportedly taking shape.

According to Cycling Weekly, Team Wiggins will include several riders expected to play a role in the Team GB squad for the team pursuit at the next Olympics, in which Wiggins himself hopes to play a role.

Among them are Steven Burke, winner of team pursuit gold at both Beijing in 2008 and London 2012, plus Andy Tennant, who was the fifth member of the squad two years ago, but missed out on a medal because he did not ride in qualifying.

Also said to be joining the squad are track specialists Owain Doull and Mark Christian, who won the Madison at the UCI Track World Cup at Lee Valley Velodrome earlier this month, plus Jon Dibben, Daniel Patten and current mountain bike specialists Iain Paton and Michael Thompson.

The team, which will race at UCI Continental level and focus mainly on domestic races in Great Britain, will reportedly have a budget of £460,000, with Sky, Rapha and Pinarello all said to be among its backers.

Cycling Weekly says that the management will comprise Robert Dodds from XIX Entertainment, which represents Wiggins, riders’ agent Andrew McQuaid and sports director Simon Cope.

Wiggins himself has made Paris-Roubaix one of his main targets for 2015, and has also been linked to an attempt on the Hour record on Mallorca during the summer.

By then, he may well have switched across to his own team under UCI rules, which permit him to join it in June, as he enters the final year of his preparations for Rio.

Should he win a medal of any colour there, Wiggins would have eight – one more than Sir Chris Hoy, although the Scot’s British record of six golds is out of reach.