Briton admits final Team Sky race was a special day
Tuesday 21 April 2015 16:48, UK
Sir Bradley Wiggins insisted he was happy with his performance at Paris-Roubaix, despite finishing 18th, and admitted his final race for Team Sky had been an emotional occasion.
The 2012 Tour de France winner formed part of an elite group of favourites going into the final 50km but missed the decisive attack and eventually finished 31 seconds behind winner John Degenkolb.
Wiggins had earlier led briefly after launching an attack of his own with 32km to go and although it failed to bear fruit, he was content with the outcome.
"I'm relieved to get the race over and I'm pleased with how it went," Wiggins said. "It was nice to be able to attack. I had a place where I said I was going to go on the bus this morning.
“No one really expected it there and I got myself in a pretty good position. I got lumbered with a few riders who didn’t want to work, though, and that meant it came back.
"When I attacked, I was right up behind the motorbikes and it was like being 16 training in London again near my house. That was nice, but I was leading it at one point.
"I tried again in the last [3km] on a long drag with Sep Vanmarcke, but by then it was like when the Titanic is going down and they are all hanging on for grim death. I'm pleased with the way the race went personally."
Paris-Roubaix brought to an end a five-and-a-half-year stint with Team Sky for Wiggins, who will now join up with his new squad, WIGGINS, as he begins his preparations for racing on the track at next summer's Olympic Games in Rio.
The 34-year-old said before the race that he would block out all nostalgia but admitted afterwards that the well wishes of his fellow riders had made that impossible.
"This morning, it was really hard to not think about it being the last one," he added. "So many people came up to me during the race saying, 'have a nice life' and all this kind of stuff and it was really nice.
"All these guys who you have been bashing heads with for years, never spoken to them, and they are coming up to congratulate me on my career.
"That was really nice. It's hard not to get emotional in those first 100km, but I came through it well."
