Sir Bradley Wiggins breaks UCI hour record

Sir Bradley Wiggins has succeeded in his attempt to break the UCI hour record at the Lee Valley VeloPark in London.

The four-time Olympic gold medalist and 2012 Tour de France winner displayed remarkable endurance to cycle 54.526km in just 60 minutes, comfortably surpassing the previous mark of 52.937km set by fellow Briton Alex Dowsett in May.

"That's the closest I'll ever come to knowing what it's like to have a baby," Wiggins joked after receiving a standing ovation from a passionate crowd prior to the victory presentation.

"It's just torturous. You're constantly looking at the clock, counting down the minutes. I'm just really relieved that it's done now.

"It's been such a long build-up since Paris-Roubaix. We've been through a lot as a team, my wife and children know more about air pressure now than anyone. When you're out there you never think it's going to come to an end."

Asked where the victory ranks among his plethora of career achievements, he added: "It just tops it off. Like I said earlier in the week, if this was the only thing I did in my career it would perhaps have gone a little bit unnoticed.

"I had such great memories racing around here as a kid and to come back and do this here is fantastic."

Coach Heiko Salzwedel was similarly delighted. He said:"I'm over the moon and I can really say that is one of the highlights of my career and of Bradley's career. We will share this memory for a long time.

"It was nerveracking because I had seen that Bradley was running out of gas and he was fighting, fighting, fighting. I never saw him fighting so hard before."

Wiggins just missed out on his own personal target of 55.250km, but Salzwedel does not believe he will harbour any lingering regrets.

"Absolutely not. We had incredible high air pressure here. It was very sticky and it makes a hell of a difference. Everybody was waiting here in London for the sun and we were here waiting for the rain."