Video: Wiggins hails Dowsett's Hour Record as fantastic

Bradley Wiggins has labelled Alex Dowsett's Hour Record ride as fantastic and told Cyclingnews that it "sets up my attempt in four weeks time."

Wiggins was talking the day after Dowsett (Movistar) pushed the record out to 52.937 kilometres at the Manchester velodrome. Wiggins will take on the record next month at the Olympic Velodrome in London.

"I thought that it was fantastic. I said before the start that he'd either just break it or that he'd fail and I knew from the start that he'd be starting on the record pace. It's good for the record and that someone else has got it now and that it sets up my attempt in four weeks time," Wiggins told Cyclingnews before the start of stage 3 at the Tour de Yorkshire.

"I hope that after my attempt that someone else goes for it in the future and that it doesn't just lie dormant for ten or fifteen years like Chris [Boardman's]."

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Wiggins made his debut for his Continental development team, WIGGINS, at the weekend at the Tour de Yorkshire. Although he failed to make an impact on the road racing he was easily the main draw for the British public who uprooted from their usual spot outside to the Team Sky team bus in order to congregate outside the WIGGINS team's small camper van.

The squad took shape after Wiggins was omitted from Team Sky's Tour de France team in 2014 and has a mandate to develop and bring riders to form for the Rio Olympics in 2016, where Wiggins is set to ride the team pursuit before retiring from professional cycling.

"For the moment it's just a team which is trying to do its best on the track in Rio. We have a programme built around that, to help us try to win gold in Brazil. And then when I quit cycling I hope it can continue as a development team, not really for elite athletes or the Tour or anything. That's too big," Wiggins told the press.

"We have a little caravan, not a bus like Sky's. It is more accessible for the public, which I like. We are a team of the people rather than for the elite, marginal gains, winning the Tour."

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Daniel Benson

Daniel Benson was the Editor in Chief at Cyclingnews.com between 2008 and 2022. Based in the UK, he joined the Cyclingnews team in 2008 as the site's first UK-based Managing Editor. In that time, he reported on over a dozen editions of the Tour de France, several World Championships, the Tour Down Under, Spring Classics, and the London 2012 Olympic Games. With the help of the excellent editorial team, he ran the coverage on Cyclingnews and has interviewed leading figures in the sport including UCI Presidents and Tour de France winners.