Bradley Wiggins begins his third Tour de France this weekend (July 4 and 5) in the glamorously rich Riviera surroundings of Monaco.
And the 29-year-old triple Olympic gold medallist and Garmin-Slipstream team rider from Maida Vale hopes to avoid the doping controversy that unfortunately ended his 2007 tour. The team he was riding at the time Corfidis withdrew after stage eleven when disgraced team-mate Italian Cristian Moreni failed a drugs test.
Wiggins, also a triple winner of 2008 world championships, has been pretty red-hot on the saddle since his heroics from Beijing last August where he struck gold in both the individual and team pursuit, claiming stage victories in the Tour of Qatar and Three Days of De Panne, also the Beaumont Trophy Road Race in Stamfordham, near Newcastle two weeks ago.
He completed his Tour preparations last Sunday by finishing well down the field at British National Road Race Championships in Abergavenny.
Even the legendary seven-time Tour winner Lance Armstrong, who this year came out of retirement and rejoins the annual 24-day marathon cycle feast after a four year absence, speaks extremely highly of the Brit, describing him as 'The best f***ing pursuiter of all time'.
Wiggins, who is rumoured to join the newly-formed all British Team Sky outfit next year, will be one of the favourites alongside fellow GB Olympian and Garmin-Slipstream team-mate Mark Cavendish, Norway's Thor Hushovd, Aussie Cadel Evans and 2007 tour winner Alberto Contador to claim the yellow jersey in Saturday's 15.5km individual time trial around the streets of the principality.
Later in the week the Tour will stop by Marseille, Montpellier, and Perpignan before heading into the Spanish cities of Girona and Barcelona. It finishes on July 26 at the famous home stretch of Champs-Élysées, Paris and you can follow Bradley's progress everyday on ITV4 and Eurosport and reports can also be found on this site.