Cycling: Wiggins Falls Agonisingly Short of Time-trial Triumph

Britain's Olympic pursuit champion Bradley Wiggins was only five seconds away from the biggest road time trial win of his career yesterday, taking seventh place to the American Bobby Julich in the 4.8km prologue time trial at the Paris-Nice Race to the Sun in the Paris suburb of Issy-les-Moulineaux.

Julich was the overall winner last year, and started the defence of his title with a surprising ride over a course that some observers, including Wiggins's last two professional team managers, felt was not suited to the Londoner, starting as it did with a tough climb followed by a dangerous, twisting descent.

"I'm frustrated because I know I am going well and I won't have the chance to use this form again in an event like this for a while," said Wiggins. "The team are pleased, though, because they could see that the hill and the descent meant I couldn't use all my power."

The other prologue specialist to make the frame, the Australian Bradley McGee, could only manage third, but the favourite to relieve Julich of the yellow jersey today will be the world champion Tom Boonen, who finished fifth and is likely to win today's stage into Saint-Amand-Montrond, where a bunch sprint finish is expected.

At the weekend's World Cup event in Sydney, meanwhile, Great Britain's track cyclists provided some interesting pointers to form for the Commonwealth Games, with the highlight Wendy Houvenaghel's gold in the women's individual pursuit on Saturday, which gave the Cornish-born dentist first place in the overall World Cup standings.

A talented time triallist, Houevenaghel only took to pursuiting last year, when she won the British national title, but she finished runner up in the pursuit in the Moscow World Cup event. On Saturday, she qualified fastest, and was more than four seconds faster than Li Wang of China in the final.

Saturday also featured a bronze medal for the former world champion Chris Newton in the points race, but yesterday, in the Madison relay event, Marc Cavendish and Geraint Thomas of the Isle of Man and Wales respectively, raced to bronze only 24 hours after Thomas had been part of a youthful Great Britain academy team that took bronze in the men's team pursuit.

With the older riders who have been mainstays in this event since the Sydney Olympics sitting it out, Thomas linked up with last year's junior world champion Andy Tennant, Ian Stannard and Ed Clancy - the oldest of the quartet at 20 - to qualify third fastest and win the bronze medal ride-off ahead of Australia, who will be the team to beat in Melbourne in less than two weeks.