Wiggins confident ahead of Worlds time trial

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Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) believes that his performance in the short, closing time trial at the Tour of Britain last Sunday will stand him in good stead at the World Championships. Wiggins beat Sylvain Chavanel (IAM Cycling) over the 8.8-kilometre course around London.

“The London time trial showed me that I’ve got all the bands of intensity covered,” he told Teamsky.com. “Time trialling is quite a linear thing and if that top-end’s there in an effort like that you only have to scale your power down a little bit to achieve a ride that’s sustainable over one hour, like we’ll be doing in Ponferrada. It was a good yardstick for me, and was reassuring ahead of the Worlds.”

Wiggins will begin his World Championships in the team time trial on Sunday, where Team Sky is looking to improve on third place from 2013. It is the first time that Wiggins will ride in the event, but his major focus will be the individual time trial three days later. Wiggins has twice taken silver behind Tony Martin, who is going for his fourth consecutive title next Wednesday.

Martin is likely to be his biggest rival again, with Fabian Cancellara forgoing the time trial to prepare for the road race. “This year’s course probably suits me a little bit better than it did against Tony last year, and there’s also an element of the unknown with where he’s at right now,” said Wiggins.

“Tony’s been so dominant all year and this race will be about whether he’s sustained that form. He won the time trial at the Vuelta but he didn’t look as convincing there as he did at the Tour.”

Compared with previous seasons, Wiggins has hardly raced on the road after taking a mid-season break to ride the track at the Commonwealth Games. He claimed his third national time trial title in June and looked on track at the Tour of Britain, despite being unable to defend his title. The Sky rider is still cautious about getting over confident.

“It’s one of those things though, it’s so unknown. I thought I’d be closer to him last year but he put 42 seconds into me, so you can’t predict what other riders are going to do,” he said. “I feel with the form I’m in though, I should be in the ball park, and we’ll see where we are on the day. In the back of your mind you build yourself up mentally and I’m telling myself there is a chance I could win it.”