Bradley Wiggins on Monday claimed Team Sky could wait until the Tour de France is underway before deciding their team leader for the race. Wiggins, 33, won the Tour, as well as a gold medal in the Olympic time trial, last year and starts his attempt to become the first Briton to win the Giro D'Italia in Naples on Saturday. In November, team principal Dave Brailsford confirmed that Chris Froome, who completed a victory in the Tour de Romandy at the weekend, would be the team's principal rider for the Tour de France.

British rider Chris Froome won the Tour of Romandie on Sunday for his third big win of the season. The 27-year-old Team Sky cyclist - the Olympic time-trial bronze medalist and second in last year's Tour de France - had 54 seconds to spare over second-placed Slovenian Simon Spilak while Portugal's Rui Costa filled third spot just as he did last year. Germany's time-trial specialist Tony Martin displayed his expertise in the discipline by winning Sunday's final stage in Geneva.

British cycling great Bradley Wiggins has labelled the team selected to help him achieve his dream of adding the Giro D'Italia to his Tour de France and Olympic time-trial crowns as as good as the one who helped him to victory in the Grand Boucle last year. The 32-year-old will be backed up by a strong team including Italian Dario Cataldo - 12th in the past two editions - and Spaniard Rigoberto Uran, who was seventh last year and claimed the young rider's title. However, Chris Froome is not in the line-up as he focuses his efforts on the Tour de France.

PARIS (Reuters) - Italian sprinter Alessandro Petacchi has ended his 18-year professional career during which he claimed 48 stage wins in the grand Tours. "I feel that it is time to take some time for myself and try to find some new challenges," the 39-year-old Petacchi said in a Lampre-Merida team statement on Tuesday. "I gave my best, as I always did in the 18 seasons as professional rider".