Sir Dave Brailsford described Sir Bradley Wiggins as one of the best athletes in British sporting history after the 2012 Tour de France winner drew his Team Sky career to a close at Paris-Roubaix on Sunday.
Wiggins attacked twice in the one-day cobbled classic but could not make it into the seven-man group that contested the sprint finish and eventually finished 31 seconds behind winner John Degenkolb in 18th.
The 34-year-old will now leave the British squad to join up with his new team, WIGGINS, and begin preparing for riding on the track at next summer’s Olympic Games in Rio.
It ends a professional relationship with Brailsford stretching back to 1998, during which time Wiggins has won four Olympic gold medals and became the first British winner of the Tour de France win 2012.
"We have been through a lot together and he has done an awful lot for British cycling and the whole of sport," Brailsford said. "When you consider his versatility, he has got to be right up there with one of the best athletes that the country has ever produced."
Wiggins attacked out of an elite group of favourites 32km from the finish of Paris-Roubaix and briefly built up a healthy lead, but he was then joined by three other attackers and the breakaway subsequently fell apart.
Brailsford admitted that when Wiggins accelerated, he believed it had the potential to be a winning move.
He added: "If you take a step back, the guy has won the Tour and won the Olympics and done everything he can, and there he was with 30km to go attacking on his own, and you think, 'Jesus, he might ride away from everybody'.
"That takes some doing and he should hold his head up high. He gave it a good old crack, like he always does."
Brailsford will now look to take Team Sky forward without Wiggins and believes Luke Rowe, who finished eighth, is a potential Paris-Roubaix winner who is ready to fill Wiggins' shoes. However, he admitted losing his talismanic team leader was a sad moment.
"It's emotional," he said. "These things comes to an end and you try to think of a nice way to end a sporting career. Do you step out at the top or do you become a fading light and drift away? We thought long and hard about it and decided this was a good way of doing it. It feels like a nice way to end."
Of Rowe, he added: "He is a very exciting prospect for the future. He has run eighth here so why can’t he come back and win it in the future one day? I’m sure he has got the capability."