Great Britain's Bradley Wiggins of Team Sky beat Lieuwe Westra of Team Vacansoleil-DCM-Bianchi by 2 seconds in the decisive mountain time trial to win the 2012 Paris-Nice race in France for the first time earlier this afternoon.

Wiggins was leading the Dutchman by 6 seconds before the time trial and maintained his advantage in the 6-mile uphill dash from Nice to Col d'Eze to become the first Briton to win the race since Tom Simpson in 1967. Wiggins beat Westra by 8 seconds overall.

Simpson, just months after his Paris-Nice win, died in the '67 Tour de France on a climb up Mont Ventoux in which he first fainted and fell off his bike, but was helped back on his bike by spectators after insisting on their help.

"I know the history of cycling - it's a massive thing for me," three-time Olympic gold medalist Wiggins commented and added "It's an historic race, and it's an honor for me to join my idol Tom Simpson on the Paris-Nice list."

Commenting on today's mountain time trial, Wiggins told Roadcyclig.com "I always said it was about me doing my ride, emptying it to the top which was always going to be horrible. It was a 19-minute effort and pacing wise we got it absolutely perfect."

"I'm pleased more for everyone else rather than myself after all the hard work the boys have put in this week. Ultimately it fell on my shoulders to finish the job off and I'm just made up that I was able to do that."

Alejandro Valverde had 18 seconds to make up on Wiggins, and that proved too much as he slipped 1:10 behind overall, but the Spaniard did enough to finish third.

The 31-year-old Wiggins is expected to be among the contenders to win the 2012 Tour de France later this year.

"I've already finished fourth in the Tour de France, third in the (Spanish) Vuelta, first at the Criterium du Dauphine (Libere) and Paris-Nice," Wiggins said and continued "I know I'll be among the best in the Tour de France. I don't know about the favorite, because there's four months to go, but in the top five."

Team Omega Pharma-QuickStep's Sylvain Chavanel finished 8th overall in the Paris-Nice race and was happy with his performance in today's mountain time trial when taking his illness into account. "This morning I was a little nervous at the start, because I was afraid I'd lose a lot of time due to the bronchitis I have," Sylvain Chavanel told Roadcycling.com.

"A time trial on a climb is a great test, it makes it difficult with breathing. But I did a good warm up and when I started, I knew immediately it was not so bad. The legs had a lot of power, so I did my time trial and I took 8th in the GC. I am happy. With the condition I have now, with the bronchitis, that was the maximum I could do."