Sir Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) – World Championships ITT silver medal

An injury-hit season put paid to most of the 2012 Tour de France and Olympic champion’s ambitions for 2013. After the constant saga of who would lead Team Sky at the Tour was ended due to Wiggins’ injury – and with his bid for the Giro already been halted by his enforced abandonment – Wiggo was determined to see out his season on a high. His recovery from injury was boosted by a stunning individual time trial victory at the Tour of Poland, before he blew the field apart at the Tour of Britain to time trial to victory in stage three and grab the overall lead – which he retained to the end.

He arrived in Florence with high hopes of success, but with two-time reigning champion Tony Martin and former three-time champion Fabian Cancellara among a strong field  up against him, victory was by no means a formality. And so it proved – but Wiggins did not go down without a fight. Martin was simply untouchable on the day but Wiggins was still able to claw back a big deficit to Cancellara in the second half of the race to pip the Swiss star to silver by just two seconds.