Wiggins Pursues Britain's First Revenge

A series of revenge matches between Britain and Australia provide a battle within a battle at the track world championships starting in Copenhagen today. Australian cyclists were resounding winners at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester. Tonight Bradley Wiggins, from London by way of Ghent, has the first chance to redress the balance.

Wiggins, 22, was soundly beaten in Manchester in the 4,000 metres individual pursuit by his professional team-mate, Australia's Brad McGee. At present the Londoner, who rides for the Française des Jeux team, sponsored by the French national lottery, is the man in form. In the recent under-25 Tour de France, the Tour de l'Avenir, he twice came close to stage wins whereas McGee has gone off the boil.

Wiggins, a junior world champion at the discipline in 1998 and a team medallist in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, courageously rode this event last year bearing a plaster cast on a broken wrist but failed to qualify. This year he has his sights on improving on his silver medal in Manchester.

"He's in the frame, with the times he's been doing in training," said the British performance director Peter Keen. "In Manchester he came up against a rider in the form of his life, and the question here will be whether the goalposts have moved again."

Keen believes this is Britain's strongest line-up at a world championships or Olympics despite the absence of the Olympic one-kilometre time-trial champion Jason Queally.

Queally has been diagnosed with post-viral syndrome, showing fatigue and a lack of explosive ability, and is not travelling. But Keen has several useful substitutes to call on, such as the Scot Chris Hoy, who will look tomorrow to build on his gold medal in the Commonwealth Games.