Four years ago, Sir Bradley Wiggins travelled to Brittany to ride the Grand Prix de Plouay, and let slip to a French television journalist that he did not want to be there. There were mitigating circumstances in the death of his hugely influential grandfather George, but it still precipitated a crisis within Team Sky. This Sunday, Wiggins flies to western France to Plouay in a happier and more confident mood, with the Tour of Britain and world time trial championship in his sights once again.

After the need for Sky to focus on Chris Froome sparked controversy by putting him out of the Tour de France, Wiggins’s autumn plans underwent a similar rejig when Froome opted for the Vuelta a España, but in less fraught circumstances. “My plan was to do two weeks there like Tony Martin does, but Sky are in the Vuelta to win it now and if they were leading the race and I had to pull out with a week to go, that wouldn’t be right.”

That has given him the chance to defend his title in the Tour of Britain, which starts on 7 September with a circuit race in Liverpool and ends on 14 September with a time trial and circuit race in London. “It will be good to be there with the No1 on my back, because I didn’t get to do that with some of the other stage races I’ve won.”

Last year, a 10-mile time trial midway through the race meant it was tailor-made for Wiggins; this year, a five-mile test on the last day will make it a tougher proposition. “I won’t be able to take much time there, 15-30sec maybe, so it will be a question of staying close to everyone, finishing in front on the Tumble” – the famous Welsh climb that hosts a summit finish in midweek – “then go into the last stage close up and try to poach it on the last day.”

Whereas in 2013 Wiggins completed the British Tour and then had only three days to recover before tackling the world time trial championship, this time round the race’s earlier date gives him an extra week. “I’m not going to be thinking about the worlds in three days which means I can just have a good race and try to win again.”

The world time trial title remains a gap on his palmarès, although he has now taken a brace of silver medals. “It would be nice to finish my career with a world title on the road, but when I come back to it, the proudest day of my career was the time trial in London. That’s the one everyone wants, so I can live with not winning the world title. Not everyone gets the opportunity to win the Olympics.”

In 2013, he finished 46sec behind the German Tony Martin, a margin that he feels is not insurmountable this time around. “I’m probably ahead of where I was last year and although Tony dominated it, over that distance [58km] 46 seconds isn’t that much per kilometre if you break it down.” This year, the course in Ponferrada, in the north-west of Spain, will be more demanding than last year’s in Florence, which should suit Wiggins, although it could also be to Froome’s advantage. “This year it’s more rolling, and hillier in the finale so I’ll have a better chance. It will be the same three or four riders again – Fabian Cancellara, Tony, Chris and me – and on any given day it can be any one of us.”

In spite of the distraction as the issue of his selection for the Tour was debated publicly and privately over several weeks, Wiggins believes he has had a more stable season than in 2013, which he hopes will stand him in good stead for Ponferrada. “Last year, I was constantly trying to rebuild after having that time out with injury, but I’ve had a more consistent season this year.

“The track training block for the Commonwealth Games pushed me on because of the extremes you go to, so the numbers are better than 12 months ago. I hope I’m in a better position, but you can’t account for anyone else’s ride, so as at the Olympics, all I can do is do my ride. You can predict to a certain degree where the medals will go, but not the order they will be in.”

Wiggins is negotiating with Sky over a contract that he and they hope will take him up to the Rio Olympics. The details are being ironed out, because of the need to balance what Wiggins wants to do in terms of racing with Sky’s need to get value for their money, but Sky’s chief, Dave Brailsford, has said that he hopes an attempt on the world hour record will figure in any deal – Brailsford believes that Wiggins should attempt the record before the end of his career – and Wiggins appears to be thinking along those lines as well.

“If I pencil it in, it will be in late June because of the good weather and it leads on from Paris-Roubaix and the training for that.” The record’s structure was changed this year after a UCI experiment with the “Athlete’s Hour”, in which the rider had to use equipment similar to that used by Eddy Merckx in 1972. That was unpopular and resulted in the record losing much of its lustre, so the rules have been reversed to encompass whatever aerodynamic equipment is currently deemed permissible. The issue for the UCI was that when Chris Boardman broke the record in 1996 using a hyper-aerodynamic position known as Superman, equipment seemed to be overtaking the human side of the record, and Wiggins can see the point. “After that record everybody said there was no point any more, because it had gone too far with the equipment. It was almost the end of an era.”

In the 2012 Tour winner’s view, the current distance set by the Czech Ondrej Sosenka at 49.7km is vulnerable and the record needs to be re-established. “I hope it is there to be broken and that I can pave the way for the next person, whether it’s Fabian or Tony. The glamour went from it when the UCI went to the athlete’s hour and moving away from it was the best decision they made.

“I was never a fan of it – I could see the challenge of comparing yourself with Eddy Merckx but the equipment wasn’t the same. For Chris Boardman’s record [in 2000] he wasn’t wearing a helmet like Eddy’s, and he had overshoes not clips and straps. It looked similar but wasn’t the same. I’d like to rejuvenate it, re-establish a mark for everyone to attempt. You can’t under-estimate how hard it is. I spoke with Miguel Indurain about it; he said he had only three weeks to do it after the Tour [in 1994] and he hadn’t ridden the track before, but he wanted his name on the list of holders.”

There are other changes afoot, with the Bradley Wiggins Foundation – launched in Wiggins’s annus mirabilis of 2012 – being scaled down. “It will keep going but it’s not going to be a huge thing; like all things it takes time and effort and if I’m focusing on the Olympics in the next two years I have to look again at what I do. We’ve put money into the Wiggle-Honda women’s team and will continue to do that; we won’t take on big events as they take so much time and resource to organise and do well. I really admire people like Lawrence Dallaglio and Mo Farah for their big fundraising nights but this isn’t our thing.

“We had ‘Ride With Brad’ [a sportive organised near Wiggins’s Lancashire home that gave fans a chance to ride with the Olympic gold medallist] but we decided not to put it on this year as I have to focus on training. It’s also proved difficult to commit to a date for it, because of the way racing schedules can change, for example we had to switch it last year when I was called up to the Eneco Tour.

“It was a brilliant celebration of everything that was great about 2012. We had thousands of people riding the Lancashire hills and it really inspired and touched a lot of people locally that year and a year later. But you need to keep things fresh. We also have a longstanding commitment to Sky and Skyride, which is a brilliant way of encouraging people to get on their bikes, and that’s something I want to be doing more to support next year. I’ll keep the foundation going but it won’t be a big thing.”