Worlds TT between Sir Bradley Wiggins and Tony Martin, says Rod Ellingworth

Great Britain coach Rod Ellingworth says that Sir Bradley Wiggins, twice runner-up to Tony Martin in the time trial at the World Championships, “has every chance” to beat the German to the rainbow jersey this afternoon.

Wiggins will roll off the ramp to tackle the 47.1km course at 2.34pm UK time, followed two minutes later by Martin, who beat the Briton to the top place on the podium in Copenhagen in 2011 and Florence last year, the final man out as defending champion.

In between those silver medals Wiggins, buoyed by his Tour de France victory a week and a half earlier and the support of a home crowd, got the better of Martin to win gold at the London Olympics in 2012.

Ellingworth believes there is nothing between the pair and that they are the only two men – four-time world champion Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland is missing – who can challenge for the top spot today.

“Brad is in good shape by the looks of it,” said Ellingworth, quoted on Telegraph.co.uk. “He’ll do his thing and it will all depend on whether someone else can take it off him.

“I think there’s only one guy who can: Tony Martin. And I think if Brad does everything right then he stands every chance. At his best he is as good as Tony Martin on this type of circuit. He is fresher as well, with Martin having done a lot of racing this summer.”

The course starts of reasonably flat but gets hillier in the final third, including a twisting descent to the finish including gradients of up to 16 per cent, and the weather forecast is for a dry afternoon.

“Pacing will be key,” said Ellingworth. “The climbs come at the back end so if you overwork early on then you will pay for it later. I think it will be close between them.”

Wiggins is currently negotiating a contract that should keep him at Team Sky until the Rio Olympics in 2016 where he plans to compete in the team pursuit, meaning he will spend the next two years switching between the road and track.

Ellingworth says that will give Wiggins, who looked strong when winning the short time trial in London on the final day of the Tour of Britain, earlier this month added impetus to go for victory today.

“I’m pretty sure that Brad is thinking, ‘there aren’t too many more opportunities for me to win this thing’,” he explained. “He is 34 now so this will be one of his last worlds. He is in good shape now, he is fresh, the course suits him. There is no Fabian Cancellara here, either, who might have been a threat.”

Wiggins will be joined this afternoon by Alex Dowsett in flying the flag for Great Britain. Ellingworth believes that a top ten place is a “realistic” target for the 25-year-old from Essex, who signed a new three-year contract with his Movistar team this week and who won the Commonwealth Games time trial in Glasgow last month.

“It is a more challenging course for Alex,” said Ellingworth. “He is not quite an all-round time triallist yet but he has proved that he can go out there and perform. I think top 10 is very realistic,” he added.

After that Tour of Britain time trial win ten days ago, Wiggins said he believed he could win in Ponferrada. He told the Team Sky website: "This year’s course probably suits me a little bit better than it did against Tony last year, and there’s also an element of the unknown with where he’s at right now.

“Tony’s been so dominant all year and this race will be about whether he’s sustained that form. He won the time trial at the Vuelta but he didn’t look as convincing there as he did at the Tour.

“It’s one of those things though, it’s so unknown. I thought I’d be closer to him last year but he put 42 seconds into me, so you can’t predict what other riders are going to do.

“I feel with the form I’m in though, I should be in the ball park, and we’ll see where we are on the day. In the back of your mind you build yourself up mentally and I’m telling myself there is a chance I could win it,” he added.