Wiggins targets Top 20 Tour finish

Bradley Wiggins, Britain's double gold medal-winning cyclist from the 2008 Beijing Olympics, has targetted a Top 20 finish in the Tour de France, which begins in Monaco on Saturday.

Wiggins is likely to start as favourite in the time trial that will kick off the three-week event, and with the first week of this year's Tour composed of stages that will play to his strengths - another time trial follows on Tuesday - there is a real possibility the 29-year-old could be wearing the yellow jersey of the overall leader by the end of the first week.

"If I can get close in Saturday's prologue time trial, not too far behind someone like Fabian Cancellara, and then we can do a rattler of a ride in next Tuesday's team-time trial I might have a chance of taking the yellow jersey."

Meanwhile, Dutch rider Thomas Dekker has been ruled out of this year's race after testing positive for the banned blood-boosting substance EPO. His place on the Silence team will now be taken by Briton Briton Charles Wegelius.

WHAT THEY ARE SAYING
William Fotheringham, the Guardian: "The triple Olympic gold medallist Wiggins showed up well in the early mountain stages at the Giro d'Italia, but saved his strength from half-distance so as to keep something in reserve for the Tour. 'I was up there for 10 days there. It's hard to concentrate every day in the Giro, because there is always a finishing circuit or a little hill in the last miles, but the Tour is more straightforward.' Wiggins is apparently at his lightest-ever race weight, 5kg lighter than a year ago when he was focused solely on winning Olympic gold medals in Beijing."

Daily Telegraph: "This is not the first time Dekker has been embroiled in controversy. In August last year it was reported that he was not selected for the Tour de France because of abnormally high blood parameters, an indication, though not proof, that blood manipulation has taken place. Dekker also announced two years ago that he had been collaborating with Italian trainer Michele Ferrari, who has been controversially linked with administering EPO since the 1990s. Ferrari is best known for having worked with seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong, who in 2001 admitted he had collaborated with the Italian doctor."