Chris Hoy expects Bradley Wiggins to blaze a trail to the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and return with a medal.

The 34-year-old Wiggins is targeting an eighth Olympic medal — he has four gold, one silver and two bronze — at his fifth and final Games to become the Briton with the most Games gongs.

Hoy has seven Olympic medals, six of them gold, and expects his former teammate to achieve his target in Brazil in less than two years’ time.

Hoy said: “Bradley has shown that whenever he really sets his mind on a goal, whenever he targets something, there aren’t many people in the world you would guarantee, almost, success when they do that. He’s one of those people.

“Nothing’s guaranteed but I think he’ll have a very, very good chance of making the team in Rio, if that is what he wants to do.

“And if he is in the team, the team will have a very good chance of winning a medal and perhaps a gold medal.”

Wiggins, who won the Road World Championships time-trial last week after a challenging year which saw him omitted from Team Sky’s Tour de France squad, has other targets, notably the Hour Record.

Wiggins, who is in advanced negotiations over a contract extension with Team Sky which will allow him to focus on Rio and the Hour, will have the full support of British Cycling when he bids for the mark, with next June a possible date.

Hoy had a one-man support team when he travelled to the altitude of La Paz in Bolivia in 2007 targeting the one-kilometre time-trial record.

“Going for a record is a strange thing,” Hoy added.

“There’s no silver medal, there’s no consolation prize. You either get the record or you don’t.

“It can add pressure. It’s a very different feel to anything else that I’ve done in my career.”

Hoy missed out on his target by five one-thousandths of a second, or 6cm, and later discovered his front wheel was positioned incorrectly as a result of a sticker error by the manufacturer. It could have made all the difference in the 58-second attempt.

He did claim the 500m mark, which stands to this day, and, as a cycling fan, is thrilled to see interest in the Hour Record revived after the UCI, cycling’s world governing body, clarified regulations relating to equipment.

Jens Voigt of Germany established the new mark of 51.115km in one hour earlier this month, with Wiggins, Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland and Tony Martin of Germany all potential challengers for the record.