Five-time Olympic champion Sir Bradley Wiggins has announced his retirement from cycling aged 36.
The 2012 Tour de France winner said he had fulfilled a “childhood aspiration” of making a career out of the sport.
“I’ve met my idols and ridden with and alongside the best for 20 years,” he said.
“2016 is the end of the road for this chapter, onwards and upwards. Kids from Kilburn don’t win Olympic golds and the Tour de France! They do now.”
Wiggins became Britain’s most decorated Olympian in August when he won the team pursuit gold on the track in Rio, his fifth gold and eighth Olympic medal.
He secured eight world titles on the road and track and set the world record for the furthest distance ridden in one hour at 54.526km.
However, his use of therapeutic use exemptions (TUEs), has come under scrutiny after his confidential medical information was leaked by hackers ‘Fancy Bears’ in September 2016.
“What will stick with me forever is the support and love from the public though thick and thin, all as a result of riding a pushbike for a living,” Wiggins added.
“2012 blew my mind and was a gas. Cycling has given me everything and I couldn’t have done it without the support of my wonderful wife Cath and our amazing kids.”
Britain’s most decorated Olympian with five gold medals in his haul of eight
2000 – wins first Olympic medal, bronze in Sydney
2004 – first Briton to win three Olympic medals at same games since 1964
2008 – wins two gold medal at Beijing Olympics
2012 – first British winner of Tour de France
2012 – wins time trial gold at London 2012
2012 – BBC Sports Personality of the Year winner
2012 – Velo d’Or winner (best cyclist of the year award)
2013 – knighted for services to cycling
2014 – world road time trial winner
2015 – sets world hour record on the track at 54.526km
Won eight world titles on the track and road
A golden year
The medals and the jerseys
Wiggins had already won team pursuit silver at the 1998 Commonwealth Games as an 18-year-old before he began to seep into the public consciousness with a bronze in the same event at the Sydney Olympics in 2000.
Sixteen years later, he teamed up with Ed Clancy, Owain Doull and Steven Burke to neatly bookend his career with team pursuit gold in Rio.
In between, he became the first British athlete since Mary Rand in 1964 to win three medals at one Olympics – claiming three on the track at Athens in 2004.
Two more golds followed at the 2008 Beijing Games before he opted to focus more of his attentions to the road, finishing fourth in the 2009 Tour de France – later upped to third following Lance Armstrong’s disqualification for doping.
Following his sensational 2012, Wiggins was knighted in 2013 and went on to win world time trial gold in 2014 before setting a new hour world record at the London Olympic velodrome in 2015.
There were also seven track world titles, including two with long-time friend Mark Cavendish in 2008 and 2016 in the madison.
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