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Sir Bradley Wiggins was left disappointed as the five-time Olympic cycling champion returned to competition as a novice rower on Saturday. The 37-year-old, who retired from cycling in December 2016, was competing in the elite men's two-kilometres event at the British Rowing Indoor Championships at the LeeValley Velodrome. Wiggins has previously floated the possibility of going to a sixth Olympics, but this time as a rower at Tokyo 2020, when he will be 40. Wiggins' inexperience in the event was apparent as he paused early on, thinking he had false started. He recovered his rhythm but shook his head at finishing in six minutes 22.5 seconds as Adam Neill won for a second successive year. Wiggins was a respectable 21st out of 99 entrants, but left the competition area swiftly before leaving the velodrome soon afterwards. He had set himself a target time of 6:05, said two-time Olympic rowing champion James Cracknell, who has been acting as a mentor. "He'll be hurting a lot, but he won't leave it like that. He doesn't want to go out on failure," Cracknell said.
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