Former Tour de France champion Bradley Wiggins believes that Team Sky will look to launch a women’s team in the near future.
Wiggins currently funds the Wiggle Honda team, home to Britain’s current or former world champions Joanna Rowsell, Laura Trott, Dani King and Elinor Barker.
Lotto-Belisol and Orica-GreenEDGE have already set up stand-alone women’s teams and Wiggins believes that Sky could be set to follow suit.
“I think it’s the next logical step in terms of where we are coming from and what we are focused on,” he told Thursday’s edition of British newspaper The Independent. “We’ve certainly got the bodies for it.
“I think the only danger with it is that they become this incredibly super squad, with a great budget and great riders, and then you’ve got the worst women’s team on the circuit too and the void is huge… it becomes a financial competition rather than an athletic one.”
The 2014 Tour de France will feature a women’s race alongside the traditional men’s finale on the Champs Elysees in Paris and Wiggins believes it could prove to be a significant breakthrough.
“There’s been a lot of talk about that since the (London 2012) Olympics, but two years have gone by and I don’t think we’re any further forward in terms of a few people saying a few things,” said the 2012 Tour champion.
“This is the first thing of note of somebody big putting their money where their mouth is. It’s a huge step forward.”