NEW DELHI: Triple Olympic gold medallist Bradley Wiggins, who also has five world championship titles against his name, has said he will miss the road World Championships in Melbourne, Australia to concentrate on the Commonwealth Games 2010 Delhi that will be held a fortnight later.
“I'm still doing the Commonwealth time trial but I'm not doing the Worlds. You'd have to go out (to Australia) a good chunk (of time) in advance and I just don't fancy it,” Wiggins was quoted as having said in an interview to Cycling Weekly. The 30-year-old Wiggins, who suffered a bike failure while on course for a world championship medal last year, has won three silver medals in the Commonwealth Games in 1998 and 2002.
Meanwhile, according to other reports in the British media, British Cycling officials are confident star names such as Sir Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton, gold medallists for Scotland and England in Melbourne four years ago, will be free to compete in Delhi despite some scheduling issues.
The UCI, cycling's world governing body, is reportedly discussing incorporating continental championships into the qualification calendar for the Olympics – a two-year qualification period which began after last month's Track Cycling World Championships in Copenhagen and runs until the March 2012 World championships in Melbourne.
If the European championships, slated for October 8 to 10 in Pruszkow, Poland, is extended to a five-day continental event which would then act as an Olympic qualification, there would be a direct clash with the Commonwealth Games where the track programme is scheduled for October 5 to 8.
British Cycling has been assured by the European Cycling Union (the UEC) that a clash between the Commonwealths and the European championships would be avoided. The possible conflict was a result of the Commonwealth Games not appearing on the UCI's global competition calendar because it is an event which takes place under their rules but outside of their control.
Hoy and Pendleton could forego this year's European Championships in order to take part in the quadrennial Commonwealth Games.
The results of the International Olympic Committee’s discussions with the UCI on qualification for track, road, BMX and mountain bike events meeting will be made public before mid-May.
Meanwhile, in Adelaide, the Australian team, which has just completed a successful World championships, where it topped the medal tally ahead of Britain, is looking forward to locking horns with its British rivals and with the strong New Zealand team at the Commonwealth Games. “There is going to be a lot of pride on the line. We're all extremely excited about it, we're all very motivated,” said Anna Maree Meares who is expected to feature in three events on the track in Delhi.
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