CORRINGHAM’S Daniel Patten will be one of the trusted aides of cycling superstar Bradley Wiggins this year after being named in the Olympic champion’s new team.

The 28-year-old has been selected as part of the inaugural Team Wiggins squad that has been created by the reigning world time-trial champion and former Tour de France winner.

Patten has had a nomadic career since turning professional, racing for teams in Belgium, the USA and Asia.

This will be the first time he has raced for a major domestic squad and he is still pinching himself that it will be alongside arguably Britain’s biggest ever cycling star.

“It’s exciting to be in the same team as someone like Sir Bradley and it’s nice to have an opportunity like this, especially from the outset.”

The past few months have been something of a whirlwind for the former Gable Hall School pupil.

He returned from a summer racing in America in October unsure about his future.

And then, out of the blue, he received an email from Team Wiggins.

“At that time of the year you are trying to sort out plans for the new season,” he recalled. “There were a few emails sent back and forwards and I was just hoping it would come off.

“Most of my career since turning professional has been spent abroad. I’ve been in Belgium, the US and a little bit in Asia. I wouldn’t change that but it’s nice to come back and to be able to race in England.

“And it’s nice that it’s with this team and with this project.”

Patten turned to cycling relatively late. He was originally a promising runner with Thurrock Harriers before swapping spikes for cleats and he threw himself into the cycling world.

Moving to Belgium, one of the world’s hotbeds of cycling, was his first step and after many years of hard work, he is delighted to be able to return to these shores.

“I feel like I have been on the verge of a really big opportunity for a number of years now,” he said. “You just have to keep winning races and keep doing what you are doing and hope that you will get that chance and now it has finally happened.”

Patten is still unsure about his exact role in the new Team Wiggins. He will be one of nine riders, including Wiggins on a team that will also include some of Britain’s top Olympic team pursuiters, plus some of the top young riders in the country.

“It’s still fairly early days and everyone is still putting stuff together,” Patten said. “We will be racing on the UK domestic scene, doing the National Series races and then preparing for the bigger races on the British calendar like the Tour of Britain, Ride London and the new Tour of Yorkshire.

“I would call myself a strong, aggressive rider. For the last few years I have been a bit of a domestique (a rider whose main purpose is to help the team leader), doing lots of work for others and that’s not something that always gets noticed. But I’m a strong rider and don’t mind taking on the work and I expect I’ll be doing a bit of that with the new team.”

And who better to do work for than Wiggins who has created the team to help him with his dual targets of the next 18 months – breaking the world hour record and winning gold in the team pursuit at the Rio Olympics in 2016.

“I haven’t actually spoken to Brad,” Patten said. “It’s all been a bit of a rush to get things sorted and then Christmas and New Year arrived and he has been sorting out his own contract with Team Sky. But we are going to a training camp in Mallorca at the end of the month and then have a get together back in England after that when everyone will meet up.

“But it’s exciting to be in the same team as someone like him. When you know the sort of job you can do in a team to be helping a guy like that, it’s very exciting. It’s going to be great working for him and learning from him. He is a really good guy to be working for.”

Upon announcing his new team last week, Wiggins said: “Cycling has given me everything. I want to build something to inspire kids and to reach all those people who might be on the fringes of the sport.”