Meanwhile in California ... Sir Wiggo comes alive

Despite not yet being two years removed from winning the Tour de France and an Olympic time-trial title, a lot of people have been quick to write off Sir Bradley Wiggins. His disappointing 2013 season -- highlighted by his withdrawal from the Giro and failure to make the Sky team (injured) for the Tour -- have been used as reasons for thinking his best has come and gone and that he's on the descent down into retirement. And there was also the thinking that he had enjoyed 2012 too much and was simply paying for it in 2013, that a year removed from that success might yet spark a fire within him to try and find that old form. Suddenly this week a few signs have emerged to suggest that it may well be returning.

Wiggins and reigning Team Sky Tour de France winner, Chris Froome have had a rocky relationship and last year we were getting set for an inter-team head-to-head across France only for Wiggins not to ride. After Froome's victory, Sky looked correct to have put their eggs in the Froome basket, and when word came out of camp that the two had reconciled it seemed Wiggins had accepted his new role on the team: Time-trial specialist who would become a super-domestique to Froome.

Now I don't know about you, but even after Wiggins came out admitting that Froome was the top-dog on the team and that he would indeed ride for him, I couldn't help but wonder whether someone with the ego of Wiggins would have it in him to put aside his past success in the Tour and simply ride for Froome, even in spite of Froome's 2013 season. Sometimes I cynically questioned whether Wiggins had merely buried the hatchet in order to win back a place on their Tour de France roster.

I've nothing of course to suggest that all is the case, and maybe it all is genuine, but the way Wiggins has been racing of late, I'm starting to really think that he has designs of his own come July's big race.

He came into the season looking a new man. A good winters training and a race program different from the past that would see him tackle -- and target -- the Paris-Roubaix first before thinking about Grand Tour racing. Had the man that had dominated the track before coming across to win the Tour de France before winning an Olympic time-trial title, now decided to add a Monument classic feather to his cap?

It looked that way and while he was probably a little disappointed inwardly to have finished 9th in Roubaix, there was no doubt that those who doubted his ability to adapt to one of the toughest and most rugged of spring classics were left amazed at his ability to hang in and mix it with the best in the classics business just as he had done when he integrated himself from a track rider to a full-time Grand Tour rider, winning the Tour in 2012.

But what next? Wiggins said he would be back for more in Roubaix in 2015 and no reason not to believe him anymore, but was his goal in the short term of this season now to shed a few pounds and make himself a respectable deputy for Froome by July? Well, the first test of how that was going is coming this weekend at the Tour of California. And it sure as heck looks to me as though he's gone further than any of us might have thought he would.

The old fire in him appears to be burning again.

On Monday's individual time-trial across 20.1 kilometres, Wiggins didn't just win, but shattered the opposition. He beat a very good time-trialist in Rohan Dennis by 44 seconds over that 20.1 km, and took 52 seconds out of American Taylor Phinney in third.

But can he climb again?

Well, speculation is that Wiggins has shed 5 kilograms since the Paris-Roubaix and to look at him he looks like a Grand Tour rider again as opposed to a more bulky classics man. The test of his climbing came yesterday, a day after the time-trial victory.

On the days final seven kilometre assent to the finish at Mount Diablo, that included gradients touching 17 percent, Wiggins led from the front. He went all Miguel Indurain and simply let the others ride on his wheel as he pounded his way towards the top shedding men as he went. An exercise in hard training within a race as much as a tactic to simply win the race, or so it seemed, Wiggins obliged those that could sit on his wheel by setting the tempo. Few could sit with him, though one who did was Dennis who finished second to him the day before, and in the final kilomtre he jumped clear to win the stage. Wiggins hit a wall, somewhat, and lost 20 seconds thus reducing his lead over Dennis in the GC to 24 seconds, but had laid down another marker as to his new found form.

You have to think Wiggins is only going to get stronger as the days tick down towards the Tour. No longer can his selection for Team Sky be in doubt. And what is Froome thinking? What is Wiggins now thinking? Will he take this form and suddenly think, what if? What if he can keep close to Froome in the mountains, maybe even steal some time. What if he's in contention come the Tours loan 54 kilometre time-trial? Could Wiggins shock his rivals -- if indeed a former Tour winner just two years removed from that win would be considered a shock?

I'd say the odds are still against him and a lot of this might be me hoping that he can get himself into the mix to really spice up what is looking like a very competitive Tour. Maybe this is simply all part of Wiggins effort to get ready to help Froome, maybe this is all part of Sky's big plan. After all, Froome was immense last July and is singularly targeting the Tour once more, Alberto Contador looks better than he's been for years and last years Giro winner, Vincenzo Nibali is coming back to France for another bite at the cherry. But the odds against Wiggins must be reducing by the week, like his weight, and in direct contrast to his form and confidence. And beware someone like Wiggins when he gains some confidence.