Regaining a motivation to continue his career on road as a professional cyclist, Bradley Wiggins has already emphasized several times this season that participation in this year’s Tour the France edition with its Grand Depart to be held in Leeds is one of his biggest objectives, despite a very different role within the Team Sky train, comparing to the one from their 2012 campaign, he would have to play this time around.

“I’d love to be back at the Tour de France,” Wiggins told Sky Sports News in January.

“I missed it last year and I was watching it on the TV. When you see it from the outside, you see just how great the Tour de France is.”

Wiggins also admitted, that the Tour the France starting from Great Britain plays an important role in his ambitions to return to an event, as well as the perspective of two former yellow jersey winners riding arm in arm in the event, under the banner of the very same British team. However, if Sir Bradley regains the spot in Sky’s Tour squad, it is more likely that he will be forced to ride in the supporting role for Christopher Froome, as a title defender.

In the interview for the Independent the former Tour the France champion once again insisted he won’t question Froome’s leadership role in Team Sky’s pursuit to bring home their third consecutive Mailot Jaune, but he is eager to become a part of the British team’s roster for that event as he has some unfinished business left in France.

"Froome's got the mantle [of leadership] now which is good but I've still got unfinished business with the Tour," Wiggins told The Independent.

"I want to do something else at the Tour, whether it's a great ride for Chris or the chance to win another time trial there. With it starting in the UK, too, it's going to be a celebration of where British cycling has come from and I want to be part of that."

"In the case of the Tour, I see myself in that train with Richie [Porte] and whoever else it is, being one of the last guys there and to be there when it matters. There were a couple of times last year when Chris was really isolated and I want to be in a position that I can be there when that happens," Wiggins said.

Wiggins acknowledges, though, that a place in a roster of the British team for the Tour the France is something to be earned, even for the former winner of the French grand tour, and it would require a huge amount of work to be done not only between now and July but also in the event itself.

"You can't underestimate how good you have to be to do that job as well, it's not something I'm taking for granted," he said. "To do myself justice and the team and Chris justice, as an ex-winner of the race, it's not about making up the numbers and giving a few pulls here and there.”

The Olympic Champion also confessed that he found all the responsibilities connected with being the Tour the France title holder mentally distressing, and he expects to enjoy his eventual participation this year to the greater extend while being freed from all the pressure.

"I wasn't handling being Tour champion very well. All that Lance stuff had kicked off and I didn't want to be in that position. It's just different now,” he said.

"It's really liberating not being in the position of constantly being asked 'can you win the Tour?'"

Having similar experiences concerning being the Tour the France champion Wiggins could easily emphasize with the position in which Chris Froome found himself during his campaign last season, even though the atmosphere around the former Briton lack in 2012 was seemingly more relaxed.

"He got so much crap. His performances were so dominant but they were also genuine. I know everyone says that we were all lied to by Lance but the testing wasn't as scrupulous back then. You'd have to be mad to do it [dope] in this day and age, maybe a bit psychopathic," Wiggins said.

"That's the stage cycling is in at the moment and I don't know if the cynicism and suspicion is going to get worse. Maybe for the next few years that is what we have to expect."