There was 'never a chance' of Wiggins riding Worlds road race
GB coach Ellingworth talks about defending time trial champion's decision to miss Worlds
There was never any chance of Bradley Wiggings taking part in this year's World Championships road race, despite Great Britain's depleted squad.
The team have lost Chris Froome, Geraint Thomas and Mark Cavendish through injury and fatigue and have drafted in Adam Yates as a replacement, with Adam Blyhte also in contention for a late call up.
According to GB's head coach Rod Ellingworth, the only question was whether Wiggins would ride the men's Elite time trial, a race he won emphatically in Spain last year.
"I asked Brad ages ago and he quite straight and plainly said no," Ellingworth told Cyclingnews.
"There was certainly never a question of him doing the road race but there was with the time trial as he was reigning world champion."
Since leaving Team Sky in April Wiggins has devoted the majority of his time and effort to the track. He set a new UCI World Hour Record in June and is aiming to win a final Olympic track gold in the team pursuit in Rio in 2016. He has made sporadic appearances on the road this season with outings at the Tour of Britain and the Tour de Yorkshire but his main focus has been on the track.
"At the end of this day he has his objective and he's happy with doing that," added Ellingworth.
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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.