Cycling: Bradley Wiggins sets new targets

Bradley Wiggins reached the pinnacle of world cycling this summer by winning the Tour de France and following up with home Olympic success in the London 2012 time trial (Getty Images)

Bradley Wiggins may have fulfilled his dreams but will have no difficulty motivating himself for new challenges.

The 32-year-old reached the pinnacle of world cycling this summer by winning the Tour de France and following up with home Olympic success in the London 2012 time trial.

As he basks in the adulation of the nation, there may seem little else for Wiggins - now a four-time Olympic gold medallist - to achieve but he is already refocusing.

Wiggins' Team Sky boss Dave Brailsford wants to achieve overall victory in all three of cycling's Grand Tours - France, Italy and Spain - and his number one rider wants to be part of that challenge.

Wiggins, Britain's first winner of the Tour de France, said: "I'll always find something.

"I'd been trying to win the Tour for four years - that had always been the motivation, the drive, after crashing out last year, coming back, doing the Worlds and then going on. Obviously I've achieved that now.

"I always said I wanted to win the Tour once - I'm not greedy, one would be enough.

"But now a month on I'm thinking I'd maybe like to go back next year or go and try to win the Giro (d'Italia) now. That's just as historic, just as much of a beautiful race.

"Already I'm starting to get that drive, that feeling, that competitive thing again.

"The minute you finish in Paris you think you never want to do that again.

"But then as time goes on, you start going out on some of your training roads and thinking, 'I remember coming up here in December in the rain'.

"That's what won me the Tour and I start to feel the love of it again and wanting to go through that whole process again."

Another possible target could be the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

He said: "I'd love to do it because the last time I did the Commonwealths was Manchester in 2002.

"I've never won a gold at the Commonwealths. It doesn't have as much meaning within cycling as the World Championships, the Olympics, the Monuments, a Grand Tour or a stage win, but from a Commonwealth perspective, it's a bit like a mini-Olympics, it gets a lot of television coverage. And it is in the UK.

"I'd love to go back there and try to win a Commonwealth gold just to add it to the collection more than anything.

"Whether I do the time trial or the track events I don't know, but it is certainly something I'd love to be part of."

PA