Cycling: Wiggins Closing on World Title and New Job

Politics have dominated proceedings this week at the world championships in Madrid. The governing body, the International Cycling Union, has gone to war on two fronts: with the World Anti-Doping Agency over Lance Armstrong's drug tests, and with the Spanish cycling federation, which is hosting this week's racing.

The latter dispute, over tomorrow's ICU presidency elections, culminated in a mass walkout by the sport's top brass, who decamped on Monday to deliberate in Geneva rather than the Spanish capital in protest at a legal challenge by the Spanish - which was lost yesterday - against the current president Hein Verbruggen.

Politics are also on the mind of Britain's best hope for a medal, Bradley Wiggins. Last year's triple medallist on the track in Athens will go for a medal in the road time-trial over a 27-mile course this afternoon, hoping to emulate his former mentor Chris Boardman, who won the inaugural time-trial championship in 1994.

But the wheeling and dealing worrying Wiggins has nothing to do with the battle of the blazers. The 25-year-old needs to find a new professional team to support him in attempting to win the prologue time-trial in the Tour de France and defend his Olympic track pursuit title in Beijing in 2008. Negotiations are under way with several squads, but a medal today would be the perfect carrot for a potential new backer.

Fortunately, Wiggins just happens to be in the form of his life. Ten days ago he took the first road-race victory of his four-year professional career, winning the toughest mountain stage in the Tour de l'Avenir, the "Tour de France of the future" for riders aged 25 and under.

"I'm confident. It's been my goal for the last few months and I can't get more fit than I am now. Tests have shown that I'm as good now as David Millar was in 2003 when he won it." Millar won the title that year but was stripped of the honour in 2004 after confessing that he had used banned substances in the build-up, and the drugs issue has worried Wiggins this year as it has since he began riding the road as a professional.

The lanky Londoner leaves no one in doubt that he is clean, but he is still coming to terms with the fact that some of his opponents may not be. "It has frustrated me this year. You don't see the result for the same effort as you do on the track. There have been a lot of questions in my mind about what people are up to, but then I begin to think, am I using it as an excuse? It's always going to be there."

Having achieved his initial goal of an Olympic track gold medal, this year his aim was to transfer his talents to road racing but by the middle of the season he was contemplating a return to the track. "After the Giro d'Italia [in June] I had a bit of doubt about whether I wanted to continue with the road malarky, but we decided I had to pick something and hit it with as much effort as I made for the track in Athens."

Selecting today's race as his sole purpose for the past four months has suited Wiggins, who felt at odds earlier in the season with the approach chosen by his French professional team, Crédit Agricole. "Physically I've coped well but mentally I can't deal with getting up for the win week after week.

"I've always targeted two or three things and hit them full-on. They didn't feel they had the time to let a rider prepare for something like the prologue time-trial in the Tour de France. But now I've picked my goals and the results have come. And now it's important to find a team who will have confidence in me and let me build a programme for the Tour prologue in Strasbourg next year."

Today's race, on a rolling course with two little hills, will prove to potential backers whether Wiggins has the ability to target major goals on the road, and that in turn will dictate the colours he wears as he builds up to the next Olympics. "I need to stay professional if I want to win in Beijing. I need this level of competition to get the fitness."

Also at the back of his mind is the imminent decision on whether the Tour will visit his home town in 2007. "If I can do two more things in my career, the Tour de France prologue time-trial in London and the Olympic pursuit title in London would mean I would be made for the rest of my life as a sportsman."