Bradley Wiggins has flown out to Mallorca to begin his buildup to next year's Tour de France and Giro d'Italia at a training camp where he will attempt to recover the form taht gave him the Tour title and an Olympic gold medal.
In the view of his coach, Shane Sutton, the 32-year-old is hungrier than ever and will not be set back a great deal by the break from training after he was knocked off his bike by a car. "I think he's probably more hungry now because the challenge is greater," Sutton said. "He's more hungry but the expectation isn't as big. Taking away the expectation has been fantastic and, off the back of that, he'll have a great Tour anyway. He wants to do a great Giro. He wants legendary status and to win the Giro would help that."
Sutton said Wiggins is "not in bad shape", adding: "Our strength and conditioning people have put together a good weights programme for him, he's been running a bit. He's got two massive seasons behind him so he is a different animal now. You can take a little out of what he's got and there is still a lot left. Eight weeks is going to get you pretty close to where you need to be. If you've got three months to work with an athlete who is in pretty good shape, you can do a lot."
Wiggins is likely to put in three blocks of three days' training and one day's rest before returning to his home in Lancashire.
The Great Britain head coach has known Wiggins since he was a junior, and has been working with him in a formal coaching capacity since the end of 2010; the Tour winner has credited the former Australian professional with playing a key role in his successes of 2012.
Sutton is currently discussing his role for 2013 onwards with the Great Britain performance director, Dave Brailsford, but it seems likely that he will continue to work with Wiggins in the future.
Speaking at the Track World Cup in Glasgow, Brailsford said that he considered Wiggins's accident had been "quite traumatic".
He added: "I was worried about Bradley, obviously. You hear he's been knocked off and he's OK, but he was hit pretty badly and he went right over the car. I've never been properly hit by a car but from what I gather people say, when you go right over a car it's a lot more scary and makes you think about death.
"Same for Shane [after his bicycle accident on the road the next day]. He might laugh and joke but it makes you think, for sure. It's quite a deep experience, I think. It was a shock."
