Tour de France champion Bradley Wiggins has traveled to Majorca as he begins to prepare for what could be another defining road season.
Wiggins arrived in Spain on Friday and coach Shane Sutton says he is in "reasonable shape" after a glorious year in which he won the Tour and gold in the London Olympic Games time-trial.
"He's still got to come to terms with what he's achieved and then get back to doing what he does best, and that's riding his bike," Sutton told journalists at the Glasgow Track World Cup last week.
"He's done quite a bit of cardio work, quite a bit of running, he's got a good core program, our strength and conditioning coaches put a good weights program together for him.
"He's off to Majorca ... so he's ready to ride, three [days] on, day off, three [days] on, day off, three [days] on, day off, and come home. He's ready, and he's taken out a kid that he mentors. [He's] doing 12 hours on his three days."
Both Sutton and Wiggins were involved in separate crashes with motorists - within 24 hours of each other - earlier this month. Wiggins suffered minor injuries and his coach, who has a fractured cheekbone and sustained bruising and bleeding on the brain, doesn't see his protégé's accident as a setback.
The 32 year old Wiggins has downplayed a Tour title defence and at the recent 2013 route presentation in Paris declared he was set to vie for overall honours at the Giro d'Italia next year.
"If you come to me as a coach with an athlete in decent shape, eight weeks is going to get you pretty close to where you need to be," Sutton said.
"Three months to work with an athlete who is in pretty good shape, you can do a lot. We've talked about this, there's no holding back in January. We feel we're in a good place still and this is the start. My plan was to start training at the end of October, start riding your bike and get ready to train in December. We missed a little bit [with the crash] but we are pretty much ready to train."
Related links
Shane Sutton recovering at home after crash
Bradley Wiggins in hospital after being hit by car
'I'd love to be an F1 driver': Get to know GB track sprinter Emma Finucane
'I felt like I was the worst rider in the bunch' - Simon Carr dispels doubt with longest ever solo win at Tour of the Alps
