Bradley Wiggins will once again target the Tour of Britain and the individual time trial at the World Championships. He is riding GP Plouay to build up for his goals and while he would have preferred to ride the Vuelta, he is happy to be back in Britain.

"Sky are in the Vuelta to win it now and if they were leading the race and I had to pull out with a week to go, that wouldn’t be right," he told the Guardian newspaper.

"It will be good to be there [ed. Tour of Britain] with the number one on my back, because I didn’t get to do that with some of the other stage races I’ve won."

Wiggins won the Tour of Britain last year based on an aggressive time trial, but with the distance shortened in 2014, he acknowledges a repeat win may be more difficult.

"I won’t be able to take much time there, 15-30 seconds maybe, so it will be a question of staying close to everyone, finishing in front on the Tumble (the stage 3 summit finish), then go into the last stage close up and try to poach it on the last day."

Following his home tour, he will train for the world championsips, where he was second last year in the TT, and he insists he s better than he was in 2013.

"I’m probably ahead of where I was last year… Last year, I was constantly trying to rebuild after having that time out with injury, but I’ve had a more consistent season this year," he explains. "Although Tony dominated it, over that distance, 46 seconds isn’t that much per kilometre if you break it down."

"This year it’s more rolling, and hillier in the finale so I’ll have a better chance. It will be the same three or four riders again – Fabian Cancellara, Tony, Chris and me – and on any given day it can be any one of us."

A final goal Wiggins may choose to pursue is the Hour Record. He will step back from the road at the end of this year and 2015 may be the perfect opportunity to attempt the difficult discipline.

"If I pencil it in, it will be in late June because of the good weather and it leads on from Paris-Roubaix and the training for that," said Wiggins.

"I’d like to rejuvenate it, re-establish a mark for everyone to attempt. You can’t under-estimate how hard it is. I spoke with Miguel Indurain about it; he said he had only three weeks to do it after the Tour – 1994 - and he hadn’t ridden the track before, but he wanted his name on the list of holders."

"After that record (Chris Boardman’s in 1996) everybody said there was no point any more, because it had gone too far with the equipment. It was almost the end of an era."

"I was never a fan of it – I could see the challenge of comparing yourself with Eddy Merckx but the equipment wasn’t the same. For Chris Boardman’s record – in 2000 - he wasn’t wearing a helmet like Eddy’s, and he had overshoes not clips and straps. It looked similar but wasn’t the same."