Bradley Wiggins says he will stay at Team Sky for another season, despite the 2012 Tour de France winner being overlooked for a spot in this year's race.
Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport quoted the 34-year-old as saying he was targeting the Paris-Roubaix one-day race and possibly the hour record on the track, but his time as a tour contender was over.
“My time as a Grand Tour rider is over. I'll still ride them but not to win them,” Wiggins said at the Pinarello Cycling Marathon event in Treviso.
“I'm thinking about it (the hour record),” added the Briton. “Not this year but I'll try next year. And I'll do it on these bikes because I'm going to stay at Sky.”
Wiggins, included in Team England's track cycling team for the July 23-Aug 3 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, has clashed with team mate and 2013 Tour winner Chris Froome, who was picked as Sky's team leader before pulling out with injury after the fifth stage.
Wiggins, a four-time Olympic gold medalist, has not raced a grand tour since pulling out of last year's Giro D'Italia but will ride the Tour of Spain in August.
Sky's team principal Dave Brailsford told The Guardian that Wiggins was “a great champion who has been integral to the Sky story. We are keen to support him in the best way as he works towards his ultimate goal of achieving Olympic success in Rio.”
Wiggins backed Italy's Vincenzo Nibali to win this year's Tour de France.
“If he goes as well as he did when he won the Giro last year, if he's got the same condition, I think he's unbeatable,” he said. – Reuters