A relaxed, focused and ready Bradley Wiggins is relishing the tag of Tour de France favourite.
On June 30 in Liege, Wiggins will aim to become the first British Tour winner - fulfilling Team Sky's stated aim - after enjoying a remarkable series of results this season.
The 32-year-old, three-times an Olympic champion on the track, has won the Paris-Nice, Tour de Romandie and Criterium du Dauphine stage races in a sequence never before achieved. The last person to win Paris-Nice and Romandie in the same year was five-time Tour champion Eddy Merckx.
"It's a good position to be in now, going into the Tour de France as the favourite," Wiggins said.
"No-one would've given me that tag a few years ago so it's just a mark of how much I've moved on as an athlete. My performances speak volumes and I'm trying to embrace that because it may never ever happen again.
"I realise what it would mean to win the Tour de France, which is why I've made the sacrifices I've made, why I've put the amount of work in that I have for the last year and a half.''
Wiggins was speaking from Majorca, where he is fine tuning preparations for the Tour under the supervision of coaches Shane Sutton and Tim Kerrison.
Sutton, something of a father figure for the Londoner, describes the current stage of training as "putting the hundreds and thousands on the ice cream".
Wiggins' confidence is due to his results and he does not see why the successful streak should end before Paris on July 22.
"There's no reason to think when we roll down the ramp in Liege that that's not going to continue happening,'' Wiggins added.
"It's just continuing what we've been doing, not trying to get ahead of ourselves and taking it one day at a time.''
Team Sky must find a way to incorporate the dual goals of Wiggins and world champion Mark Cavendish, who has won 20 stages in four Tours and last year claimed the points classification's green jersey.
Wiggins anticipates Cavendish will prioritise the Olympic road race, which takes place six days after the Tour's conclusion, on July 28 in London.
"I know he's focused on the Olympic road race; I know he's put a lot of time and effort into that,'' added Wiggins, who raced with Cavendish at the Tour de Romandie.
"Whether the green jersey is part of those goals and part of that build-up to winning that Olympic road race, I can't answer that.
"We'll certainly be chasing the GC (general classification) in the Tour and trying to win the Tour de France."
Wiggins was a revelatory fourth in the 2009 Tour, 24th in Team Sky's debut a year later and crashed out with a broken collarbone last year.
While in his hospital bed in Chateauroux, he revised his targets, focusing on the Vuelta a Espana - where he went on to finish third - and watched from afar as Cadel Evans triumphed.
According to Wiggins, Australian Evans, who has five times in seven attempts finished in the top 10 of the Tour, twice as runner-up and once in the maillot jaune, is his main rival.
"Cadel has got to be the man, for me anyway, to beat," Wiggins added.
"He has been so consistent over the years in the Tour de France and he is the reigning champion.
"The manner he won the Tour it was incredible. I found it inspirational watching it at home.
"Just by giving his all day-in, day-out, and some days he had bad days, but he fought back and he got into a position where he was able to win the Tour in the last time-trial.
"He gave hope to a lot of people out there, the way he won it and the manner in which he won it, and it certainly inspired me to try to do it myself."
