Sick Wiggins ruled out of Tour of Britain

Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins will miss the rest of the Tour of Britain after being forced to pull out of Friday's sixth stage with an illness.

Wiggins, who won the Tour de France in July and his fourth Olympic gold last month, was absent from the start line as stage six, from Welshpool to Caerphilly, got underway and Team Sky confirmed the British star had picked up a stomach bug.

“Unfortunately Bradley Wiggins was unable to start stage six of the Tour of Britain today after picking up a stomach bug,” Team Sky's official Twitter site revealed. The 32-year-old was 41st overall after stage five and trailed 12 minutes and three seconds behind Australian race leader Leigh Howard of Orica-GreenEdge.

Wiggins, who is also expected to miss the final two stages on Saturday and Sunday, was earlier this month named on the Great Britain long list for the road World Championships, which take place in the Netherlands next week.

AFP