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Wiggins abandons 2020 Olympic rowing bid

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Bradley Wiggins (File)
Bradley Wiggins (File)

London - Five-time Olympic champion cyclist Bradley Wiggins has abandoned plans to bid to row for Britain at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

The 2012 Tour de France winner retired from cycling in December 2016 and flirted with the idea of rowing competitively, taking part in last December's British Rowing Indoor Championships.

The 38-year-old told his eponymous Eurosport show: "I'm still training most days with it, but I've decided I'm not going to the Olympics because I've got too much other stuff to do.

"I need to give myself a break. I haven't got time to train three times a day. To the level I want to do it to, it's a full-time job in itself. There's too much going on."

Wiggins previously floated the possibility of going to a sixth Olympics in Tokyo, when he will be 40, as a rower, although his lack of experience and the timeframe meant that was always a challenging prospect.

He won a fifth Olympic gold in the men's team pursuit at Rio 2016 after returning to the track from the road.

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