CANCELLARA TARGETS PURSUIT AT BEIJING OLYMPICS

As revealed in today?s Cycling Weekly the world time trial champion, Fabian Cancellara, is planning to ride the individual pursuit at the Beijing Olympics next summer.

The time trial specialist blitzed the rest of the field at the Tour de France prologue in London and now the Swiss track coach Markus Nagel wants him to turn his hand to the pursuit.

Nagel admits it?s not as easy as getting up one day and transforming road speed into track craft, so Cancellara will be testing at the velodrome in Aigle, Switzerland, before Christmas.

And, if the times are good enough, the CSC rider will enter the final round of the World Cup track competition in Copenhagen in February in a bid to qualify for the Olympics.

So, if Wiggins and Cancellara do go head-to-head in Beijing, who?s the favourite?

THE DEFENDING CHAMPION

Bradley Wiggins
Team: Great Britain

Birthplace: Ghent, Belgium

Age: 27

Height: 192cm (6ft 2in)

Weight: 75kg (11 stone 7)

PRO TEAMS
2001 Linda McCartney

2002-2003 Francaise des Jeux

2004-2005 Credit Agricole

2006-2007 Cofidis

2008 T-Mobile

TRACK PEDIGREE
Olympic Games

Gold ? individual pursuit, Athens 2004

Silver ? Team pursuit, Athens 2004

Bronze ? Madison (with Rob Hayles), Athens 2004

Bronze ? Team pursuit, Sydney 2000

World Championships

Gold ? individual pursuit 2003, Stuttgart

Gold ? individual pursuit 2007, Majorca

Gold ? team pursuit 2007

Individual pursuit personal best: 4-15.165 (Athens Olympics)

ROAD REPUTATION
Prologue wins: 1 (Dauphiné Libéré 2007)

Pro time trial wins: 5 (Tour de l?Avenir 2003, Circuit de Lorraine 2005, Four Days of Dunkirk 2007, Tour du Poitou Charentes 2007, Duo Normand 2007)

Road stage wins: 1 (Tour de l?Avenir 2005)

HONOURS

Awarded the Order of the British Empire in the New Year?s Honours list on January 1, 2005 after winning a gold, a silver and a bronze at the Athens Olympics.

THE CHALLENGER
Fabian Cancellara
Team: Switzerland

Birthplace: Bern, Switzerland

Age: 26

Height: 185cm (6ft)

Weight: 80kg (12 stone 6)

PRO TEAMS
2001-2002 Mapei

2003-2005 Fassa Bortolo

2006-2008 CSC

TRACK PEDIGREE

None

ROAD REPUTATION

* Twice junior world time trial champion (Valkenburg 1998, Treviso 1999)

* Twice world time trial champion (Salzburg 2006, Stuttgart 2007)

* Five-time Swiss national time trial champion (2002, 2004-2007)

Prologue wins: 8 (including Tour de France 2004 and 2007)

Pro time trial wins: 11

Road stage wins: 5 (including Tour de France stage at Compiegne 2007)

Overall stage race wins: 4 (including Tour of Denmark 2006)

Classics 1 (Paris-Roubaix 2006)

SUMMARY

Cancellara is clearly one of the most accomplished rouleurs in the modern peloton. His power, technique and pure speed was evident to the huge London crowd as he demolished the field at the Tour prologue in July.

Cancellara covered the 7.9-kilometre course in a time of eight minutes and 50 seconds - an average speed of 53.7 kilometres per hour. Wiggins was 23 seconds slower.

Wiggins? personal best for the 4,000 metres pursuit is four minutes and 15.165 seconds, set in Athens ? an average speed of 56.47 kilometres per hour.

Cancellara?s status as the best time trial and prologue rider in the world right now may not be threatened in the near future but the track is a whole different basket of onions.

When it comes to a fixed gear, a wooden track and unimaginable pressure, Paris-Roubaix, Tour de France stages and world time trial titles will mean absolutely nothing ? and that?s assuming he even manages to convert his proven road ability to the track in his testing sessions.

VERDICT

Wiggins remains the clear favourite, particularly given Cancellara?s lack of time to learn what the track?s all about.

Read the full story in today?s issue of Cycling Weekly, out now