Bradley Wiggins is hoping to become the first two-times winner of the Tour of Britain after being selected to lead Team Sky in the eight-day race, which starts in Liverpool this Sunday.
The 34-year-old won a first overall victory at his home tour last year and missed the Vuelta a Espana to ride in this year’s race.
“The Tour of Britain is a special race for me, so to be returning as defending champion is a real honour,” Wiggins said. “It’s always been a tough race, but the support we receive from the fans is incredible, and it’s our home tour, so I have always enjoyed racing it.
“From the start of the year it has always been a goal of mine to race in the Tour of Britain. The race is growing in stature year on year and it’s our chance to go there with a strong team and race in front of home fans to thank them for their support over the season.”
The 2012 Tour de France champion will be joined by two other Englishmen, Ian Stannard and Ben Swift, in Team Sky’s line-up, and they will ride alongside Spain’s David Lopez, Austria’s Bernhard Eisel and Colombia’s Sebastian Henao.
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Wiggins won last year’s tour by finishing in London 26 seconds ahead of Switzerland’s Martin Elmiger in second place and 1min 03sec in front of Simon Yates in third.
However, the 34-year-old could find it harder this year, as the individual time-trial – his specialist discipline - is only 8.8 kilometres, half of the length that the time-trial was in last year’s race.
The race, which was upgraded by the UCI to the second tier of races on the international calendar this year, starts this Sunday, finishing in London a week later. Marcel Kittel, the eight-time Tour de France stage winner, will be riding for Giant-Shimano.
* The Times will have daily highlight packages of the Tour of Britain, available on our website, smartphone and tablet.