'I may not ride the Tour again' - Bradley Wiggins

Tour de France 2012 winner Bradley Wiggins, sidelined from this year’s edition through injury, may not try to win the race again, he indicated in comments published on Friday.

“For me it was always about winning the Tour,” he was quoted as saying on guardian.co.uk, the web site of Britain’s The Guardian newspaper.

“I’ve done that. If I’m honest I don’t think I’m prepared to make those sacrifices again that I made last year, with my family and so on. I’ve achieved what I’ve achieved. I’m incredibly happy with that.”

Wiggins, who was Britain’s first-ever winner of the famous race, followed up with gold in the Olympic time-trial and played a starring role ringing a bell to signal the start of the Games’ opening ceremony.

He also won the BBC’s prestigious Sports Personality of the Year award, but has endured mixed fortunes on the bike since then.

First he was involved in a training ride crash with a car near his home in northwest England, then had to pull out of this year’s Giro d’Italia — which he was hoping to win — through illness.

He then dropped out of the Tour with a knee injury, paving the way for his team-mate Chris Froome, to lead Team Sky’s charge for further glory when the race starts on June 29.

Wiggins, 33, added: “If I do anything else after this it will be stuff I want to do, stuff that I’m willing to train hard and sacrifice for really.

“For me it was always about winning the Tour, that was a huge thing for me, a huge journey; I’ve been doing that four years. I don’t know if I’d want to go through all that again to be honest.

“I’ve always had other goals and there are other things I’d like to try and do,” he added, without elaborating.

On Froome’s chances, Wiggins said his Nairobi-born compatriot was in prime form and looked set “for a few years to win a few Tours maybe”.

The daily said that Wiggins was on the road to recovery and aimed to return to racing in the Tour of Poland, which begins on July 27.

He is also aiming to compete in the Tour of Britain and world championships in Florence in September, it added.