Wiggins off to ideal Tour de France start

Bradley Wiggins' 2011 Tour de France campaign is off to an ideal start after two stages in the country's west over the weekend.

"At the moment it's looking good, and it's been a fantastic start to this Tour de France," Team Sky's captain said yesterday. "A complete contrast to last year's Tour de France."

He lost time in the prologue time trial last year in Rotterdam, a leg where he should have gained time on rivals Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck. Instead, Wiggins, two-time Olympic gold medallist in the individual pursuit, lost 29 seconds to Contador.

The remaining 20 stages were below par for Wiggins, but he still managed 24th overall by Paris.

Twelve months on, Wiggins is telling a different story.

He now works with a coach instead of making his own training plans and spent quiet a bit of time training at altitude. So far this season, he placed third in Paris-Nice, won the TT stage at Bayern-Rundfahrt, the Critérium du Dauphiné, and the British championships road and time trial titles.

Over the weekend, his run continued.

Wiggins finished with all of his rivals, bar Cadel Evans, on the opening stage. Yesterday, Team Sky lost four seconds to Garmin-Transitions, but put its leader on par or ahead of his rivals.

Yesterday, Wiggins gained eight seconds on Robert Gesink (Rabobank), 24 seconds on Contador (Saxo Bank) and 53 seconds on Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Cannondale).

Bradley Wiggins warms up for the team time trial with his Sky team-mates

"Everyone played their role," Wiggins added of the team time trial. "My role was to keep the pace in the final when the wind was at its greatest. Everyone from [Rigoberto] Urán to Simon Gerrans, the little climbers in the team - everyone played their part it."

Sky's Xabier Zandio and Christian Knees lost contact early into the 23-kilometre stage.

"We didn't tell the team to slow up for them, we went on with seven," race coach Bobby Julich told Cycling Weekly.

"I wish we could have had one more guy to do one more strong pull. When you lose by four seconds, you know you didn't do much wrong. When you did everything right, you can't complain."

Wiggins' next test will be tomorrow's leg to Mûr-de-Bretagne, a slight uphill finish. He'll then face Super-Besse on Saturday and next week, the race's first high mountain stages.

"I haven't looked that far ahead," Wiggins said.

"It's been a fantastic start for the team. We're just really enjoying it at the moment and looking forward to the next few days."

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