The 28-year-old Londoner is joined on the start-line by Geraint Thomas, a team-mate of Wiggins' in the victorious team pursuit in Beijing.

 

Other notable home contenders are Roger Hammond and former Tour de France stage winner David Millar, who was banned from representing Britain in the Olympics because of a previous conviction for doping.

 

Wiggins, currently of the Columbia Sportswear squad, revealed earlier this week that he will be competing for the Garmin-Chiptole team, which Millar represents and co-owns, in 2009.

 

But a notable absentee is Mark Cavendish, winner of a record four stages of the Tour de France earlier this year, who will be missing as he is competing in the Tour of Missouri in the United States.

 

Wiggins admits that he and Cavendish have fallen out after their disappointing performance in the Madison event in Beijing when the pair were favourites but finished only ninth.

 

It left Cavendish as the only member of Britain's Olympic track team that did not win a medal in the Chinese capital.

 

Wiggins said: “We haven't spoken but it'll be all right.

 

"We're like brothers really.

 

"We've fallen out.

 

"He's said a few things in the heat of the moment and I can understand his disappointment.”

 

Wiggins admitted he has not ridden a bike since Beijing.

 

He said: “I’m not going to be in the best shape.

 

"All the celebrating has taken its toll a bit.

 

"But to be perfectly honest the Tour of Britain isn’t a massive bike race for me.

 

"Most importantly, it’s a chance to thank all the fans who supported me en route to winning the golds in Beijing.”

After Sunday's circuit race in the capital, which will include last year's overall winner Frenchman Romain Feilluthe, the route zig-zags around England and Scotland for a week before finishing in Liverpool.

 

The route - dictated by the regional Development Agencies which fund the race - will not be popular in the peloton because of the long distances covered between stages.

 

On Monday, the race finishes in Milton Keynes and then the riders must be shuttled 180 miles west to Chard in Somerset for Tuesday's start.

 

And between stages six and seven, the race finishes in Gateshead on Friday afternoon and starts up again in Glasgow on Saturday morning.

 

The race has been overshadowed by controversy after the inclusion in the field of America's Tyler Hamilton, the discredited former Olympic time-trial champion, who was convicted of blood doping in 2004, Spaniard Oscar Sevilla and Colombian Santiago Botero.

 

All three were named in Operation Puerto, a Spanish police investigation into organised doping, and although no criminal charges were brought against them have badly tainted their names.