Sir Bradley Wiggins is ready to take on the world after claiming third place in the Tour of Britain.
Wiggins (Team Sky) won the penultimate stage of the race, the stage 8a 8.8-kilometre time-trial, before Marcel Kittel (Giant-Shimano) once again triumphed on British soil with a sprint victory over Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) on Whitehall.
Dylan van Baarle (Garmin-Sharp) had a 19-second overnight advantage and it proved sufficient to succeed Wiggins as champion, the Dutchman taking the yellow jersey by 10 seconds from Poland's Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-QuickStep).
Wiggins, who won the time-trial in nine minutes 50.71 seconds to move up four places to third overall, was 22secs behind and pleased with a podium place after a route that did not suit his style, with short, sharp climbs late in a number of stages.
The 34-year-old Londoner will ride the six-man team time-trial with Team Sky next Sunday at the Road World Championships, before switching into the Great Britain skinsuit for the individual time-trial.
"There's a chance I could win it," added Wiggins, who in 2013 was second to Germany's Tony Martin, who will again be favourite.
"I feel in the form I'm in I'll be in the ball-park. We'll see on the day. I thought I'd be closer to him (Martin) last year and he put 42 seconds into me."
SNOOKER: Stuart Bingham cruised to a 10-3 final victory over Mark Allen to win the Shanghai Masters.
Bingham did not have to produce his best snooker but was still too strong for an out-of-sorts Allen.
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