Britain's Wiggins a surprise contender after week one

By Julien Pretot

ST GIRONS, France (Reuters) - Having shed seven kilos in two years, track specialist Bradley Wiggins has matured into a Tour de France contender.

The Briton, 6'2" tall, now weighs in at 159 pounds. His overall fifth place standing in the Tour after eight stages makes good sense, says his Garmin-Slipstream team manager Jonathan Vaughters.

"He has a mass of talent, a mass of engine," Vaughters told Reuters on Saturday before the start of the eighth stage over 176.5 km from Andorra to St Girons.

"Brad could definitely be a big surprise."

Wiggins, who won two gold medals in pursuit events at the Beijing Games, has been impressive in the first two mountain stages, tracking the usual Tour favorites to set his sights on a respectable finish in Paris.

"Today, it was actually a lot easier than I thought," he told reporters after tackling the three climbs of the eighth stage.

He lies 46 seconds adrift of yellow jersey holder Rinaldo Nocentini of Italy.

"I don't want to get too carried away (about a stage win), I want to chase the general classification as long as possible."

Wiggins used the Giro d'Italia earlier this year to test his climbing abilities in the initial stages before dropping out of contention.

"In the Giro, he sort of backed off because he wanted to win the time trial. He was testing himself," said Vaughters.

LIGHTER SINCE GIRO

Wiggins, who is two kilos lighter than during the Giro, now has to make sure he has what it takes to go through the Alps unhurt in the third week of the race.

"It's not a question of how big the engine is, it's a question of how big the fuel tank is," said Vaughters.

"We just need to see how he recovers day by day. If he can go through the Alps, he can time trial better than anyone in the world."

With an individual time trial three days before the peloton reaches the Champs Elysees, Wiggins could definitely make up for some lost time.