Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack-Leopard) is widely tipped as one of the pre-race favourites ahead of Wednesday’s World time trial Championship alongside current Olympic time trial champion Bradley Wiggins (Sky) and reigning world time trial champion Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) but the Swiss rider remains calm and focused going into tomorrow’s show down.

Speaking to the Italian news agency ANSA, Cancellara identified his main adversaries in what promises to be an epic time trial confrontation tomorrow.

“Obviously Wiggins and Martin must be ranked as my top adversaries,” Cancellara stated. “But there are others who must be taken into consideration. Taylor Phinney should not be disregarded, and some Australian rider might be able to spring a surprise. However, on Wednesday I’ll be racing against the clock, not against my opponents,” added Cancellara who has won the world time trial championship on four occasions and took the gold medal in the discipline during the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

"Wiggins and Martin are the favourites since the parcours is particularly flat and contains long straights," Cancellara said. Perhaps in an attempt to lessen the burden of expectations on his shoulders. "But I am calm and because I worked well. Certainly, the route seems hard and there will surely much pedalling to be done. My opponents will have some advantage over me, but I certainly will not race against them, but against the clock: it is my discipline. And then we will also have to contend with the wind."

Quizzed about Sunday’s road race between Luca and Florence, Cancellara declined to provide any comments, however.

“For the time being, I’m focussing on Wednesday’s time trial, and then I’ll start thinking about the race on Sunday,” he explained.

Cancellara also said that the relatively poor showing of the RadioShack-Leopard team in the World team time trial Championships would further motivate him on Wednesday.

“Obviously we wanted to win, but we lost too much time and could only manage fifth overall. Certainly this won’t be any hindrance on Wednesday. On the contrary, it will only serve to increase my motivation. I’m still entering Wednesday’s time trial to win it, but my world will not fall apart if I should lose.”