Tour de France 2010
Start: 3 July, Rotterdam Finish: 25 July, Paris
Coverage: Listen to the final hour of every stage on the BBC Sport website (UK only), with selected stages on BBC 5 live sports extra; Watch live on Eurosport and ITV4; Live text commentary each day on BBC Sport website

Wiggins won the opening stage of this year's Giro d'Italia

British cyclist Bradley Wiggins says his preparations for the 2010 Tour de France have been "near-perfect."

Wiggins, 30, will lead Team Sky in their first Tour which begins on Saturday 3 July in Rotterdam.

"It's been a near-perfect plan," said the London-born rider who finished fourth in last year's Tour.

"Everything's in place now and it's about as good as it gets in terms of physical fitness and power-to-weight ratios," he added.

Wiggins weighs 73kg, two kilograms lighter than he was for the Giro d'Italia in May.

"Two kilos on an hour's climb makes a huge difference," he commented.

It doesn't get much better than this in terms of being in the ball park to do well in an event like the Tour de France Bradley Wiggins

"I've worked hard the last two, three weeks now to drop a bit of weight and now we're into that last stage now and I'm at the Tour weight I was at last year, having remained as powerful."

Wiggins, who has won three Olympic track cycling gold medals, equalled the best result by a British rider when he came fourth in 2009 - Robert Millar finished in the same position in 1984.

"It doesn't get much better than this in terms of being in the ball park to do well in an event like the Tour de France, finishing as high up the GC [general classification] as possible," Wiggins added.

"Whether that's winning or finishing second or third or whatever - who knows - but we'll go out there and put the process together each day.

Wiggins won the opening time trial at this year's Giro, but insisted he is more focussed on the top prize rather than taking the yellow jersey early on.

"It's stage one of many and in terms of the big picture, the prologue is so small in that," he stated.

"There's two races, there's the race for the prologue specialists who want to take yellow for a few days. And then there's the race of the GC guys.

"The main priority is to win that race of the GC guys and put as much time as I can into some of those guys. I'll certainly be in the ball park, but as soon as I cross the line, I'll be thinking about the next day."

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