Bradley Wiggins is set to launch the new Sky-backed pro squad “Team Wiggins” with Irishman and rider agent Andrew McQuaid among the management.

 

Irish cycling agent Andrew McQuaid is set for a management role with the new development team being launched by Bradley Wiggins.

McQuaid, from Co Wicklow, will be a member of a small group that makes up the management of the UCI Continental-ranked team.

Wiggins will be another member of the management set-up as will Robert Dodds, president of the XIX Entertainment company that handles Wiggins affairs.

The team’s lead directeur sportif will be Simon Cope. He is currently British Cycling’s U23 endurance coach and is a former directeur at the women’s Wiggle-Honda squad.

McQuaid has been a cycling agent for a number of years and in 2011 was among the first batch of agents to qualify from a new UCI course and become officially accredited by the world governing body.

 

Wiggins is switching to a track focus for the 2016 Olympics and his new team will nurture British talent for Rio.

 

As well as representing Irish riders Nicolas Roche and Philip Deignan, he also handles contract negotiations for an international stable of riders including Taylor Phinney (BMC) and Simon Gerrans (Orica GreenEdge).

McQuaid has had a role on the management side of the Irish amateur Nicolas Roche Performance Team for the last couple of seasons.

While his new position with Sky-backed Team Wiggins will be more significant, the new outfit will be small in the context of global cycling.

McQuaid’s involvement is unlikely to have any impact on his business as a rider agent.

The new team, which is set to ride a lot of UK races, will have an estimated budget of around €600,000.

 

McQuaid, leading, riding as an amateur in Ireland for University College Dubin Cycling Club in the years before the bike game became his livelihood.

 

That, coupled with its status as a Continental ranked team, means it would be around the same size as other UK-based Continental teams and An Post-Chainreaction.

It looks set to have a small roster of just eight riders initially, two of whom – Owain Doull (21) and Mark Christian (24) – have ridden with An Post-Chainreaction in the past.

It was hoped the official launch of the team would take place before Christmas, though that is now unclear.

Wiggins, who in 2012 became the first Briton to win the Tour de France, already has seven Olympic medals to his name, from track and road.

He became world time trial champion in September but now plans to refocus on the track with the aim of winning an eight Olympic medal in Rio in 18 months.

His new development team will be used to nurture track talent for the Olympics, including the team pursuit line-up with whom Wiggins will hope to win gold in Rio.