Wiggins prepares for 'dream' Tour de France victory

An emotional Bradley Wiggins hailed a "dream" Tour de France victory as he prepared to stand on the Champs Elysees podium on Sunday as Britain's first winner of the epic race. In a campaign that was reminiscent of his childhood hero, Spanish legend Miguel Indurain, Wiggins sealed final victory thanks in large part to two time trial wins, with Team Sky providing crucial support in the mountain stages in between. Barring catastrophe, Wiggins will finish Sunday's final stage to Paris with a 3min 21sec lead over Sky teammate Chris Froome, with Italian Vincenzo Nibali of Liquigas third overall at 6:19. A year after crashing out of the race with a broken collarbone and three years after underlining his yellow jersey credentials with a fourth place finish, Wiggins was finding it hard to come to terms with his achievement. "Everyone says it's a dream come true but it's what I've been aspiring to do for the past few years, and even since I was a child, when I was 12 years old I said I wanted to win the Tour de France," said Wiggins. "No one really imagines, at that age, that it's possible. Here I am 20 odd years on and it's a reality now." Going into the final 53.5 km race against the clock between Bonneval and Chartres, Wiggins held a lead of 2:05 on Froome, the man who helped pace him up the latter stages of the race's climbs. Froome, who finished second on the first time trial at 35secs behind Wiggins, this time finished second at 1min 16sec. "I'm very happy. Our objective was to come here and win the Tour with Bradley, and that's what we have done," said Froome, who outshone Wiggins on several of the race's tough climbs. "For me to come second is a big bonus." After his injury setback on stage seven last year, Wiggins came into the June 30-July 22 epic determined to make amends. Although he only took 10secs off Evans in the opening prologue won by Swiss Fabian Cancellara, he took 1:43 off the Australian in the stage nine time trial. When it came to the mountain stages where rivals such as Evans and Nibali were hoping to use their attacking capabilities to make the difference, Sky simply proved too strong. They came to the Tour with a team of climbers who had trained together at high altitude and knew, thanks to experience and a methodical approach that seen them exploiting the "marginal gains" that attacks would not get far. It led to a controlled and at times subdued race that probably did little to attract new fans, but Wiggins believes it showed the sport is far cleaner than it used to be. "When we were riding on the front at 450 watts (of power) or whatever, someone would attack and Mick Rogers would say 'just leave him, he can't sustain it'," Wiggins said. "Someone is going to have to sustain 500 watts over 20 minutes of a climb to stay away, which is not possible anymore unless you've got a couple of extra litres of blood. That's the reality of it. It really is. "It's all these small little percentages that make the difference in sport." On the race, Sky's professionalism was evident to every other team. Frenchman Thomas Voeckler, who finished fourth overall riding with his modest Europcar team, said: "They designed their team around the demands of the race route. "They've got a really big annual budget which is more than triple ours," said Voeckler, who this year won two stages and the King of the Mountains polka dot jersey. "Some people might say their victory was without style and panache but you can't argue with the fact they've finished first and second. Hats off to them." Having sat at home last year with a broken collarbone and watched the joy a Tour win can bring, Wiggins admitted he came back doubly determined this year. "I think you need those disappointments to make you stronger," he said. "2010 was a disastrous Tour really in every way, in the way I handled myself and everything. It's those things that make you or break you. "Then crashing out last year, sitting at home watching Cadel in Grenoble win the Tour and seeing the sense of what he was going through, that was sort of my motivation. I wanted to feel what he was feeling."