2012 Olympics - Time Trial

If his year hasn't been amazing enough already, Bradley Wiggins starts todays time trial knowing that a podium place would earn him a seventh Olympic medal - and the honour of being the most succesful Olympian ever.

Wiggins became a household name after winning the Tour de France last month, and today's time trial is sure to be a ratings winner on television, but the question on many peoples lips is, "Has he tired himself out?'.

Certainly he dug very deep in the Olympic road race in a bid to help Mark Cavendish win gold - and that was just one week after the Tour de France victory. After a major win an athlete can experience a dramatic fall off in energy levels when the highs have gone and the body starts to demand rest. A champions hangover.

Wiggins training in Surrey.However Wiggins claims he needed a hard ride to get him ready for the time trial

"The Tour is such a good boot camp for this," Wiggins told the Team Sky website. "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!"

In his bid to overtake Sir Stephen Redgrave as GB 's finest ever Olympian he will need to see off challenges from Fabian Cancellara (SUI), Tony Martin (GER), Chris Froome (GB) and Taylor Phinney (USA).

Fabian Cancellara is nursing injuries after crashing in the Olympic road race, so he may not be at his best. However he will want to defend his Olympic title (he won gold in Beijing - ahead of Gustav Larsson and Levi Leipheimer).

Tony Martin will want to come away with something after a pretty dismal season. He crashed badly in the Tour de France, and hit a car in the lead up to the Tour. Today is his chance for redemption.

Whilst Chris Froome was spectacular during the Tour, the reality is that Wiggins is the better time triallist, and Froome is looking tired. Instead, we see Taylor Phinney as being the dark horse here. He is the only rider who has been preparing properly for the TT, having been at home in Boulder, Colorado where he mapped out a course which closely replicated the Olympic route. He is said to have made very strong progress, and is certainly a medal contender.

But, despite the threats, Wiggins has been so good in the TT this year, even a tired Wiggo may just have enough to hold off the rest in a tightly contest TT, and so do an historic Tour-Olympic Gold double. The only thing missing then would be a Knighthood.....

The Olympic Time Trial starts today at 14:15 BST.

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