With the 2011 Tour de France route unveiled in Paris today, the contenders for the yellow jersey have already started identifying the stages where they can gain or lose time. For 2009 fourth place Bradley Wiggins and his Sky team though, it’s a stage that was announced way back in January that excites him the most: the 23km stage 2 team time trial at Les Essarts.
"That stage is definitely the main source of excitement for us given our track background and experience we've built up in those types of events this season,” said Wiggins. “It's going to be a really important day for us in terms of our team selection and preparation.”
In 2010 Team Sky won the opening team time trial of the year at the Tour of Qatar, then went on to finish second in the 33km stage of the Giro d’Italia; giving up just 13 seconds to the Liquigas-Doimo team, despite arguably enduring the worst of the day’s torrential rain.
Before the team time trial though, Wiggins’ Sky team will have to negotiate the potential pitfalls of stage 1: The 191km course will first cross the treacherous Passage du Gois, which decimated the peloton in 1999, before finishing atop the short but steep Mont des Alouettes.
"There's obviously more chance of losing time on that opening stage than there would be in a prologue,” he said, “but if all goes well there then stage two represents a great chance for us to win the stage and get someone in the yellow jersey.
"On paper at least, the first week is going to be hugely important for the team."
Looking forward to the rest of the race, the 30-year-old Briton is keen to show that 2009 was no fluke and his off year in 2010 was just that. By solving the problems experience this year, Wiggins believes that he can go at least one better than his equal best ever British finish of 2009.
"The Tour de France always looks tough on paper and unveiling the route means we can finally put a cross through 2010,” Wiggins said. “Everybody is looking towards 2011 now and the 2010 Tour is done.
"We've talked about what went wrong there and we're already in the process of putting things right next year,” he continued. “It's no secret we want to get on the podium, and win it if we can, and we'll set the bar high once again and aim to do that."