Team Sky rider says team is in better shape than before gold medal ride in Beijing
Over two and a half 
years after setting a world record in the Beijing Olympics, the British team pursuit squad will this weekend aim to go faster than the mark of three minutes 53.314 seconds in the Manchester round of the World Cup.
Team Sky riders Bradley Wiggins and Geraint Thomas will join up with Ed Clancy and either Steven Burke or Andy Tennant in the event. They are motivated to lay down a new record prior to the London Olympics in 2012.
Thomas and Wiggins are both amongst the fastest pursuit riders in the world and their addition to the team is seen as something of big importance. Significantly, Wiggins is buoyant about their chances.
“This week it's been going like a dream. We are going faster than before Beijing. We're in a bloody good position to do a great time here,” he told the Guardian.
Wiggins has been concentrating on his road career since Beijing, and justified that focus when he finished fourth overall in the 2009 Tour de France. He has not ridden the track since but is hungry to get back to it. “It's like being on holiday,” he said. “When I was doing the track before it was the be-all and end-all, now the hardest thing is to reaffirm my place. But it's gone better than I expected.”
Clancy is a little less bullish about talk of a new record. “It's not impossible. It's not likely but it's not impossible,” he said. “I think a 54 or a 55 is a good target."
Wiggins has competed little this season, riding the Tour of Qatar last week. The flat, fast race is should have worked well in terms of preparation, but it is a little experimental to use a road event rather than track time to prepare for a World Cup.
According to the Guardian, it is a deliberate tactic to see how the 2012 Tour de France might serve as his buildup to the track events at the Olympic Games.
Wiggins has stated that part of the team’s motivation this weekend is to beat the Australian riders. They scorched the events at the Commonwealth Games, although some of Britain’s top talents missed the races in order to prepare for the European championships.
“It's about matching what they did in the Commonwealth Games, putting it to bed and then coming back in a year and building for London,” he said.