The event begins on Sunday and the men's time trial discipline offers Martin the chance of a fourth successive title - having won in Copenhagen, Valkenburg and Florence.
While Martin is once again among the favourites, he faces competition from the likes of Great Britain pair Wiggins, who won the time trial at the Tour of Britain this month, and Commonwealth gold medalist Alex Dowsett.
Wiggins will have plenty of scope to focus on ending Martin's dominance as he will not compete in the team event and last year's individual time trial silver medalist is quietly confident.
"It probably suits me a little bit better than it did last year over him [Tony Martin]. At the same time there's an element of the unknown with Tony, where he's at the moment," Wiggins explained this week.
"He's been so dominant and it's whether he's sustained that. He won the time trial at the Vuelta [a Espana], but it wasn't as convincing as he has been in the past, like at the Tour.
"We'll see on the day. I thought I'd be closer to him last year and he put 42 seconds into me. You can't really predict what others are going to do."
Switzerland's Fabian Cancellara opted out of the elite time trial to focus on the road race and will hope the decision proves worthwhile in the face of stiff competition from the likes of Simon Gerrans and Alejandro Valverde.
Australian Gerrans comes into the championships off the back of wins in Quebec and Montreal while home favourite Valverde picked up a bronze at the worlds in Florence last year.
Defending champion Rui Costa finished second to Gerrans in Quebec and could be in the reckoning once again.
Marianne Vos will hope to continue her dominance of the women's road race competition - following wins in the past two years.
With three titles to her name overall in the event, Vos comes into next week's action strong favourite after winning the Giro d'Italia this year as well as securing third place at the UCI Women's Road World Cup.
Last year's silver medalist Emma Johansson will seek to again threaten Vos while reigning elite time trial champion Ellen van Dijk is another contender.
Wiggins and Dowsett will also line-up alongside one another for the team time trial with holders Specialized-Lululemon again the team to watch in the women's discipline.