Olympic cycling gold medallist Bradley Wiggins is stepping down from track racing for the next two years to focus on carving out a career on the road. The Olympic 4,000m individual pursuit champion will switch after the World Cup meeting in Manchester this weekend.
Wiggins finished ninth in Friday night's scratch event but will hope for better in Saturday's points race.
"The World Cup will be my last international track race for a few years," Wiggins said.
The 24-year-old beat Australian Bradley McGee to clinch Olympic gold and left Athens with a clutch of medals, adding silver in the team pursuit and bronze in the madison.
But Wiggins now feels it is time to work for the road team, Credit Agricole, that he joined last year.
"I can give the road a few years and will get stronger by riding events like the Tour de France and Tour of Italy."
 |  If I'm strong in the Giro I will get selected for the Tour de France, and my aim is to finish both |
"They have an Olympic champion who has beaten McGee, who is one of the best prologue time-trial riders in the world and they want a piece of me," Wiggins told The Guardian.
"I can still improve in the pursuit and I'll come back stronger in 2008. Then I'll take it on to 2012, when I'll be 32. Maybe I can go on to 2016, although that will be pushing it a bit."
Wiggins will get his first taste of road racing in the Tour Down Under which begins in Australia next week.
But he has already set his sights on winning the prologue time-trial in the Giro d'Italia on 7 May.
"It's a dead straight, flat 1.2km course. As soon as they told me about it I got excited," he said.
"If I'm strong in the Giro, I will get selected for the Tour de France. My aim is to finish both."
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