• London Olympics 2012

Wiggins: Tour boot camp will propel me to glory

ESPN staff
July 31, 2012
Bradley Wiggins checked out the time trial course on Tuesday © Getty Images
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Bradley Wiggins is confident the "boot camp" he endured when winning the Tour de France is the perfect preparation for his assault on Olympic gold in Wednesday's time trial.

Earlier this month Wiggins became Britain's first winner of the Tour de France, heading the General Classification after three weeks of gruelling racing.

After his Tour heroics, the Team Sky rider then pushed himself to the limit - along with his GB team-mates - in an attempt to deliver Mark Cavendish road race gold at London 2012.

Ultimately, Wiggins and Co's efforts proved futile as Cavendish was never in a position to produce one of his trademark sprint finishes, with Alexander Vinkorouv pulling off a shock victory on The Mall.

There were fears Saturday's exertions may have taken their toll on Wiggins, but the three-time Olympic champion says the gruelling nature of the Tour de France means he is in peak condition as he bids for a fourth Olympic gold medal.

"The Tour is such a good boot camp for this," he said. "This is going be a piece of p*** now compared to that. It's just an hour and not three weeks.

"It's been the best preparation. That's the baseline of worst-case scenario of pressure and expectation, with three weeks lying ahead of you. And we handled that pretty well, so an hour time-trial to make history should be a doddle."

Wiggins is hoping to use his 53.5km Stage 19 win in Chartres as inspiration for when he tackles the 44km Hampton Court route.

"The benchmark is there from Chartres," he added. "Nothing is going to change from that performance. I have 100 per cent faith in the training Tim [Kerrison, the Team Sky coach] has set me.

"I've done enough now to realise that it is not all suddenly going to collapse on Tuesday night and that I'm going to be a pile of s*** on Wednesday. My performances have been so consistent all year and I've no reason to think that is going to change."

Chris Froome, who secured a historic one-two for Britain and Team Sky in the Tour de France, will vie with Wiggins for time trial gold, as will Fabian Cancellara who has declared himself fit to race despite suffering a heavy fall in Saturday's road race.

"The main thing is that I am on track and that is really all that matters," he said. "I'll just go out there and do the performance - I have done so well all year in time-trials - and see if you are good enough on the day. I can't predict what they are going to do."

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