Bradley Wiggins believes he has a chance of picking up a stage victory on this year's Tour de France in Saturday's time-trial.
British rider admits he will give Giro d'Italia a miss next year
Team Sky's Bradley Wiggins is targeting victory in Saturday's time-trial as he looks to finish a disappointing Tour de France on a high.
The British rider had high hopes of claiming a place on the podium in Paris having finished an impressive fourth last year.
However he currently lies in 21st place in the overall standings ahead of Thursday's 174-kilometre stage 17 to the summit of the Col du Tourmalet.
With his dreams of a top-three finish now gone, the 30-year-old may look to give up on the general classification and focus on the 52km time-trial from Bordeaux to Pauillac at the weekend.
Looking forward
"I don't know whether to persist and finish in 23rd or 24th overall or really put everything into that last time-trial now," said Wiggins on
www.cyclingnews.com.
"I'm looking forward to the time-trial. Looking at how everyone is, everyone's on their knees - (Fabian) Cancellara and all those guys.
"I've maybe got a chance of picking up a stage win, but I don't know."
Despite struggling this year Wiggins believes he can bounce back in 2011 and make an impact on Le Tour.
The three-time Olympic champion admits he may take a different approach in his build-up next year, including skipping the Giro d'Italia in May.
"I won't do the Giro again," he said. "It's just too demanding now. I'm already thinking for next year that the classics-Tour approach might be the way to do it, maybe experimenting with some altitude training as well, because I've never done it.
Altitude
"I struggle at altitude and I've never done any preparation at altitude. It's something that the sports scientists here tell me has been my stumbling block this year.
"All the numbers and the conditioning and everything have all pointed to me being a better athlete than last year.
"Certainly the tests I did before the Tour, my weight, top-end power is all intact.
"I've just been struggling whenever we get within four kilometres of the top of these mountains and a lot of that is to do with heat tolerance and altitude.
"It's been the limiting factor and something we can look at next year."
