National Time Trial titles for Wiggins and Pooley

Bradley Wiggins will be sporting the British champions’ jersey when he lines up at the starting gate for next year’s Tour de France prologue in Rotterdam after winning this afternoon’s British Time Trial Championship in Buckinghamshire.

Wiggins, the penultimate rider to go out, finished the 31.2-mile course in 1:02:15, with last man out, defending champion Michael Hutchinson of In-Gear Quickvit RT, coming second, more than two minutes down in 1:04:34. Rapha Condor’s Chris Newton, who won the title in 2005, came third, a second shy of four minutes down on Wiggins.

Matt Bottrill of Team I Ride had looked set to secure a podium place, but was disqualified for drafting Wiggins as the Garmin-Slipstream star overtook him.

The women’s title, meanwhile, was contested over a shorter course by two of Team GB’s Beijing silver medallists. Emma Pooley of Cervélo TestTeam, who finished second in last year’s Olympic time trial, took victory today, coming in 30 seconds ahead of Science in Sport’s Wendy Houvenaghel in 0:46:11. Julia Shaw of Utag Yamaha took third spot on the podium.