Bradley Wiggins fully lived up to expectations in the Tour of Britain time trial when he took a hugely dominant victory on the 8.8km course. Building for the World Championships, the Brit was pleased to confirm his form so close to the big goal.

Bradley Wiggins powered to victory in the Tour of Britain time trial to elevate himself to third place overall.

The Brit debuted his national champion’s skinsuit and bike on the short 8.8-kilometre course and did not disappoint with victory by eight seconds.

That result elevated the defending champion on to the overall podium ahead of Sunday afternoon’s final stage, 22 seconds back on the yellow jersey of Dylan van Baarle (Garmin-Sharp).

Wiggins began the day in seventh place overall but his time of nine minutes and 50 seconds saw him more than half his deficit to the race leader en route to victory.

Sylvain Chavanel (IAM Cycling) came closest to besting Wiggins on stage 8a, with Steve Cummings (BMC Racing) finishing an additional second further back as the only three riders to go sub-10-minutes.

David Lopez held on to a top-10 overall and sits in 10th place heading into the criterium finale on the streets of London.

After victory on the banks of the Thames Wiggins admitted he was pleased with the result and a likely podium finish as he builds towards the world time trial championships.

He said: “I’m pleased to have won the time trial in London. That was obviously the goal at the start of the week as well as the GC. I’m up to third now so it’s not a bad defence of the title. I’m just pleased to be back in London racing and winning.

“I came in a bit short of race days. I’ve had 35 days ahead of the start. I certainly felt I was lacking a bit at the start of the week but I’ve just got better every day. I feel like I’ve started to come into some good shape at the end of it. It’s been probably the toughest Tour of Britain I’ve ridden.”

Wiggins also paid tribute to the race and an exciting eight days of action as he now prepares to head to Spain.

“It’s been a really exciting race and it’s been changing every day,” he added. “Who would have predicted this at the start of the week? I think once Michal [Kwiatkowski] took the jersey everyone thought that was it. We started talking about getting 11 seconds back but the gaps have grown every day. Now Dylan van Baarle is going to run out the overall winner. When you look at how tough the race has been, whoever won it was going to deserve it.

“I’m feeling good ahead of the worlds. All my training has been towards that so it’s good to confirm my form with a win in a time trial, even though it was only a short one.”