Sir Bradley Wiggins: The track's been refreshing, the road started to a feel a little mundane, like I was clock watching

As he prepares for the 'final leg' of his career, Sir Bradley Wiggins says he is enjoying being back on the track and may extend career beyond Rio Games

Sir Bradley Wiggins - Revolution Series 2015/16: Sir Bradley Wiggins returns to Elite Championship
Sir Bradley Wiggins has found a new lease of life since his return to the team pursuit squad Credit: Photo: DAVID PEARCE

Sir Bradley Wiggins is sat track centre of the Manchester Velodrome, his home for the next eight months, and is irked. For a rider with a list of wins as long and varied as his, you'd imagine it wouldn't matter. It clearly does.

After winning the team pursuit title alongside Andy Tennant, Owain Doull and Jon Dibben at this month's European Track Championships in Grenchen, Switzerland, it was widely reported that the three-time track Olympic champion, multiple world title holder and current holder of the hour record, had just won his first European title.

Sir Bradley Wiggins - Revolution Series 2015/16: Sir Bradley Wiggins returns to Elite Championship
Wiggins sits track centre in Manchester at last weekend's Revolution Series meeting

"They kept saying it was my first European title, but it was my third. They got that wrong," Wiggins tells Telegraph Sport. "I won the individual pursuit in 2001 and then the derny race in Newport – in 2003 – so the team pursuit in Switzerland earlier this month was my third European title."

Since returning to the track ahead of next year's Olympics, Wiggins's enthusiasm for the sport and hunger for success remains clearly undimmed as Britain's most decorated cyclist enters "the final leg" of his career.

Wiggins - riding second wheel - en route to winning his third European title

"It's been refreshing coming back to the track. I think with the road I was getting to the stage where I was thinking 'this is my last Paris-Nice, my last Tour of Flanders' and it started to feel a little mundane, sort of clock watching. It felt like I was waiting to check out of work at five o'clock, whereas with this – the track – I'm just enjoying it. I was going to stop after Rio, but now I think I'd just love to carry on doing events throughout the winter."

Following five years at Team Sky where he became to first Briton to win the Tour de France in 2012, Wiggins set up his eponymous team where Tennant, Doull, Dibben and Steven Burke now ride in on the road as they work towards the Olympics. Despite 'retiring' from road racing, Wiggins admits that he isn't quite done yet.

Wiggins rides leadout for Tennant and Doull at September's Tour of Britain

"I'll be racing at the Tour of Dubai at the start of next year and then in May the Tour of California. I'm supposed to have retired from the road, but here I am going back."

"It's more for the team really, we [Team Wiggins] have good riders like Owain [Doull] and Scott Davies and the others, so it's good to be there helping them out, just like we did at the Tour of Britain. It's a change of role for me. The racing, too, helps with what we want to do on the track. That said, I don't want to be racing 100 days on the road, I've finished with that.

"The likelihood is that I'll retire in December 2016, rather than stop in Rio I'd like to come back and do events like the Revolution Series, the London Six and the Ghent Six Day. I'd like to go back to Ghent because it will be 18 years since I first rode it, so I'd love to go back – I'd be completing the circle if you like."

Wiggins and Doull paired up at last weekend's Revolution ahead of the World Cup

Speaking ahead of the Track World Cup in Colombia, Wiggins said he expects the five-man team pursuit squad that he will head up alongside Burke, Dibben, Doull and Tennant to face a tougher examination than at the Europeans.

"The Kiwis and the Aussies will be there. It will be a good test for us as we enter the next phase in the countdown to Rio."

One rider, though, that won't be in Colombia is Ed Clancy who suffered a slipped a disc last month. Despite winning gold at the Europeans, Wiggins admits that Clancy's absence from the team was the difference between clocking a decent time and world-class one.

Paul Manning, Ed Clancy, Geraint Thomas and Bradley Wiggins - Sir Bradley Wiggins: The track's been refreshing, the road started to a feel a little mundane, like I was clock watching
Ed Clancy (second left) has played a key role in the last two Olympic cycles that has seen Great Britian win back-to-back gold medals in the team pursuit - including here in 2008 alongside Paul Manning (left to right), Geraint Thaomas and Wiggins

"The team that rode in the final was missing Steven Burke and Ed Clancy and we were on world-record pace with six laps to go, so you'd think that once we get those two back we can make further improvements.

"The goal for Rio is 3 min 50 sec. If you look at each Olympic cycle you'll see the world record come down each time by two or three seconds. It was 3 min 59 sec in Sydney when I first rode and then it was 3 min 56 sec in Athens, 3 min 53 sec in Beijing and then 3 min 51 sec in London so that's what we're working to each day.

"It was a really good marker and a sign that we're where we want to be in preparation for Rio. If Ed misses the world championships, though, it will be a big worry for us. The medical team in Manchester are looking after him and, apparently, he's doing really well. The goal is to get him back, strong, in time for London in March. Once Cali is done we'll be building towards the world championships which will be massive."

First up, though, is the Track World Cup which gets under way on Friday as the squad takes its next step towards Wiggins's ultimate goal: winning gold in Rio, which wouldn't be a bad way for the then 36 year-old to clock off.