Momentum key to Paris-nice success – Bradley Wiggins

"Everything about this team is just snowballing and getting better and better, race after race. "Portugal was the first time we'd ever raced together and it was a brilliant week. "We're becoming more consistent too, it's more of a habit now.

Britain's Bradley Wiggins is planning to build on his early season form when the Paris-nice race begins on Sunday.

The Team Sky rider finished third in February's Tour of the Algarve after winning the concluding time trial.

The 31-year-old, who leads an eight-man team, said: "It's the first big World Tour race of the season in Europe and we'll look to continue the momentum."

Wiggins, who has three Olympic track golds, believes he can win the Tour de France and Olympic time trial in 2012. On the track, he won the 4km individual pursuit at the 2004 Athens Games, before repeating that win in 2008 and also claiming gold in the pursuit in Beijing.

However, with the individual pursuit not featuring at the London 2012 Olympics, Wiggins has turned his attentions to the road. He finished third in last year's Paris-nice, in a season that also saw him come third in Spain's major road race, the Vuelta a Espana, after breaking his collarbone during the Tour de France.

New Sky recruits Richie Porte, winner of the recent Algarve event, and Kanstantsin Siutsou will race alongside Wiggins in France, along with Christian Knees, Danny Pate, Geraint Thomas and Rigoberto Urán.

“Everything about this team is just snowballing and getting better and better, race after race”

However, Briton Chris Froome, who finished ahead of Wiggins in the Vuelta, has not yet recovered from a chest infection and Xabier Zandio will come into Sky's eight-man squad.

"The new guys like 'Kosta' and Richie are all just slotting in perfectly," Wiggins said.

"Portugal was the first time we'd ever raced together and it was a brilliant week.

"We're becoming more consistent too, it's more of a habit now.

"We've also got an incredibly strong squad at TirrenoAdriatico which takes place around the same time as Paris-nice.

"It's great to be part of it and I'm just looking forward to ParisNice now and my next few races after that."