Cycling: Wiggins Ambition Fades Away

After a storming start had put him among the medals at the first time-check in the world time-trial championship in Madrid yesterday, Bradley Wiggins faded to seventh place.

Wiggins finished the 27-mile course 1min 32sec behind Australia's defending champion Michael Rogers, who was also awarded the 2003 title 10 months after finishing second following the confession of that year's winner David Millar that he had used banned drugs. The 25-year-old rider with the Belgian Quickstep team becomes the first to take the title three times.

Starting relatively close to the foot of the seedings, Wiggins made the initial pace when he set the fastest time among the early starters at all the checkpoints. As the later men came in, however, Britain's Olympic track pursuit champion slipped down the standings.

"I thought if I could make the top 10 that would be a massive improvement for me this year," said Wiggins. "I'm just 50 seconds off the medals, so I'm pleased. Perhaps I did too much at the start of the race, but that was the plan. We said before the start that I had to go out and commit to it, that it was going to be horrible and unpleasant, and it was. I turned myself inside out.

"The whole idea was to pick this and see how good I can be on one day, and I'm pleased it came off. I've been getting encouraging feedback and I'll continue on the road next year."

On a course where the more seasoned professionals made a steady start and turned up the wick, Wiggins's progress along the mix of dual carriageways, tree-lined avenues and roundabouts told its own story: at seven miles only Rogers was faster, but Wiggins slipped to fourth fastest after 13 miles and fifth at 21 miles.

The 25-year-old Londoner collapsed briefly after crossing the line, because of his difficulty of breathing the polluted air and the intensity of his effort in attempting to overtake the rider who had started two minutes ahead, Yaroslav Popovych.

Rogers raced to a convincing 24-second margin over José Gutiérrez of Spain, and Fabian Cancellara, the Swiss winner of the prologue time-trial in the Tour de France, was only one second further adrift in third.

After legal challenges from the German and Spanish federations were quashed, the Irishman Pat McQuaid, heavily involved in organising past Tours of Britain, is expected to take over as head of the world governing body, the International Cycling Union, in elections today.