Wiggins: World Cup failure doesn't affect World Championships chances

Sir Bradley Wiggins insists Great Britain's performance in the team pursuit at the UCI Track World Cup in Cali has no bearing on their chances of winning gold at the World Championships in London in March.

Britain's line-up of Wiggins, Andy Tennant, Owain Doull and Steven Burke could only qualify with the fourth fastest time in Cali and were knocked out of medal contention in the first round.

But in the race for fifth place, Wiggins and co caught their German opponents, completing an opening 3km in a faster time than any of the medal winners - something that Wiggins insists is more important than the end result and throwing in a football reference for good measure.

"There were a lot of positives to take. In the final ride, we were riding off for fifth and we were on world-record pace for 2.5km with the line-up we had," he told Sky Sports.

"Things like that you take more from, so it wasn't really about the colour of the medal or the position. The main one was the European title, which we won a few weeks ago, and travelling out to Colombia, with the time difference and everything, was more of an experimental project.

"We are not racing now until the World Championships in March, so in competition, there aren't too many chances to try different things, which is what we did last week, so we're not really looking too much into the result. We haven't got a Chelsea situation on our hands."

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Unlike Chelsea, who have been struggling for form in recent weeks, Wiggins and co have the next three months to perfect their performances behind closed doors ahead of the World Championships on home turf.

With the next two rounds of the World Cup taking place in New Zealand and Hong Kong, Great Britain are likely to send weakened teams to keep their medal hopefuls fresh before the London championships.