Sir Bradley Wiggins is set to return to the Lee Valley Velodrome where he set the Hour Record in 2015, but this time he’ll be without his bike. He’s due to compete at the British Indoor Rowing Championships there later this year, with rumours that the rider is considering a final Olympic bid to add to his eight medals, this time on the water.
Partly inspired by his friendship with fellow Olympian and rower James Cracknell, Wiggins has taken to indoor rowing as a way of maintaining his fitness following retirement from competitive cycling at the end of 2016.
However Wiggins seems to have been surprised at the form he’s so far managed to retain, recently posting a personal best max power output of 1589 watts while out riding.
His performance as a rower seems to be almost equally impressive.
'I took up rowing when I retired just to keep fit, but my numbers started getting quite good so I’ve started taking it up professionally now and getting coached seven days a week.
'I’m doing the British Championships in December, and I’m going to see how far I can take it, maybe a sixth Olympic gold?
'I might be being a bit delusional but the times suggest I’m not,' he was reported as saying by the Daily Mail.
It’s not unheard of for athletes to transfer between the two sports. Rebecca Romero has previously won an Olympic silver medal as a rower, before switching to cycling to win gold in the individual pursuit four years later.
To produce the sort of power necessary to be competitive as a rower Wiggins will need to increase his weight by about a third compared to what it was when he won the Tour de France.
This would also allow hm to be competitive in the standard (also known as heavyweight) rowing weight class.
Wiggins is being coached by Cracknell in the lead up to the British Indoor Rowing Championship, which takes place on 9th December.
As an open event if you fancy pitting yourself against the former Tour, World and Olympic Champion there’s still time to enter: indoorchamps.britishrowing.org