Bradley Wiggins Wins the Tour de Romandie with Team Sky Looking Impressive

Team Sky's Bradley Wiggins became the first Brit ever to win the Tour de Romandie this weekend after battling against the odds to win Sunday's 16.5km time trial.

The 32-year-old came into the time trial needing to beat overnight leader Luis Leon Sanchez by 10 seconds to take the title.

Things didn't look to be going Wiggins' way, however, when he had to change his bike following a problem with his chain.

This didn't put him off though, as he flew through the course in 28 minutes and 56 seconds to take the stage by one second from Garmin's Andrew Talansky and the overall race by 12 seconds from Talansky, who rose to second overall.

Rui Costa of Movistar rounded off the final podium after a fourth-place finish in the final stage, ending up 36 seconds adrift of Wiggins.

Wiggins' teammate Richie Porte finished an impressive third in the stage to take fourth place overall.

After leading overnight, Rabobank's Sanchez struggled against the clock and finished 10th overall.

The performance of both Team Sky and Wiggins is extremely positive looking ahead to this summer's Tour de France.

On an individual level, Wiggins has now won two big-stage races this season. He also took home the Paris-Nice title last month.

Last year's Tour de Romandie winner Cadel Evans went on to become the Tour de France winner as well, so Wiggins in looking better and better as he looks to become Britain's first winner in Paris.

Meanwhile, Team Sky looked very impressive overall in the race. There have been concerns about how well the team can split their squad between the aims of Wiggins and sprinter Mark Cavendish.

Split objectives can hurt a rider's chances of victory in the Tour de France, as it did with the Team Telekom squad that contained Erik Zabel and Jan Ullrich.

This was the first time that Wiggins and Cavendish had ridden together in a stage race, and on the face of it, it couldn't have gone better.

Team Sky team principal Dave Brailsford talked about Wiggins and Cavendish after the race:

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"The other key thing was that there was a lot of discussion pre-race about Bradley and Mark riding together. Obviously that has been a positive and I think when you see Mark riding on the front up a second category climb it tells you more than any words can."

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With Geraint Thomas also taking the opening stage of the race, the potential of Team Sky will be very worrying for other Tour favourites like Evans and the Schleck brothers.

Australian Michael Rogers, who will be a key general for Wiggins in France also impressed, finishing fifth overall.

After the win, Wiggins paid tribute to his team:

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"I had a super-strong team this week and they've put me in this position going into this final time trial just nine seconds down.

"The whole race saw how strong they were this week and without them I wouldn't have been able to finish the job today. So I'm delighted to win the time trial and seal the GC to pay them back.

"You know you're in a great team when you've got the world champion riding for you on the front."

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With Team Sky also winning the team event, it was no wonder that Dave Brailsford was a happy man.

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"People don't see it but it's becoming a well-oiled machine both on the road and off the road. That's very pleasing and people are really starting to establish themselves in their roles."

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All good news for British cycling fans.

Tour de Romandie Final Standings

1. Bradley Wiggins (Britain / Team Sky) 18 hrs., 05 mins., 40 secs.

2. Andrew Talansky (U.S. / Garmin) +12"

3. Rui Costa (Portugal / Movistar) +36"

4. Richie Porte (Australia / Team Sky) +45"

5. Michael Rogers (Australia / Team Sky) +50"

6. Roman Kreuziger (Czech Republic / Astana) +59"

7. Sylwester Szmyd (Poland / Liquigas) +1:03"

8. Simon Spilak (Slovenia / Katusha) +1:13"

9. Janez Brajkovic (Slovenia / Astana) +1:14"

10. Luis Leon Sanchez (Spain / Rabobank) +1:15"