Even though almost invincible Tony Martin is considered the only favorite to take the gold medal in the upcoming World Championship individual time trial event, Sir Bradley Wiggins is hopeful to improve on his second spot claimed last year in Florence after his promising showing in the Tour of Britain last week.

Wiggins finished the Tour of Britain third overall after he prevailed in eight tough stages beat all the field in the finishing individual time trial. The Olympic champion from London was very pleased with his latest performances on home soil what made him believe that surpassing Martin in World Championships might be possible.

“The London time trial showed me that I’ve got all the bands of intensity covered. 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 said, according to TeamSky.com.

The 34-year old Briton was pleased with his showing in the home stage event, even though he actually fell short of his goal to defend his title from 2013.

“The Tour of Britain was a tough race this year due to the pattern it took with time bonuses and the way the peloton raced it,” he continued.

“Those factors didn’t really suit me, or the style I normally race at.

“I felt I was lacking at the start of the week given the number of race days I’d had coming into it, but as the week wore on I didn’t fatigue and actually felt better every day, so I was pretty pleased to end it in third place.

“It was the hardest edition I’ve ever competed in, that’s for sure. Six or seven years ago the stages were only around 130-140km long but this year we had a couple over 200km. The way we raced those stages as well, many riders called it the hardest race they’ve done all year, but it definitely helped us prepare for what we’ve got coming up at the Worlds."

Wiggins is expected to lead a formidable Team Sky squad in the team time trial event held in the opening day of 2014 World Championships, in which they will be one of the strongest contenders alongside Orica-GreenEDGE, Trek Factory Racing and BMC to take over the title from Omega Pharma – Quick Step. Then he will switch to international duty to take on Martin again, this time representing Great Britain in the individual time trial on Wednesday.

“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.

“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.

“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.

“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.”