London: Bradley Wiggins will be the star attraction as the Olympic champion enjoys a prolonged farewell ride in the Tour of Britain.
Britain’s Wiggins won an eighth Olympic medal and fifth gold as part of the team pursuit squad in Rio last month.
The 36-year-old is set to end his glittering 14-year career at the Ghent Six in November, making the Tour of Britain, which begins on Sunday, his final race on home roads.
Wiggins won the British race in 2013 and his presence among eight Rio medallists is the headline act as he says an emotional goodbye to his adoring fans.
Owain Doull, who was also in Britain’s team pursuit squad, will line up alongside him in the Team Wiggins squad.
Mark Cavendish will be back in Team Dimension Data colours after taking silver in the men’s omnium on the track in Brazil while the man who beat him to gold, Italian Elia Viviani, will race for Team Sky.
Holland’s Olympic time trial silver medallist Tom Dumoulin will race for Giant-Alpecin while three members of Australia’s silver-winning team pursuit squad — Jack Bobridge (Trek-Segafredo), Alex Edmondon and Michael Hepburn (both Orica-BikeExchange) — will also ride.
They are just part of a strong field which should set up an intriguing battle over eight stages which take the riders from Glasgow to London via Wales and Devon.
The Tour starts with Sunday’s stage from Glasgow to Castle Douglas, the opening 161.6 kilometres of a 1281.6km route which finishes on Regent Street in London on September 11.
