.......is riding for Sky in the Tour of Poland. He finished over 9 mins down on the winner on stage 1. After stage 2 had finished, he was over 13 mins adrift. Has he lost his magic?
It surprised me that I saw no interviews with Bradley during this years TDF. Assuming I didn't just miss them, would you read anything into that silence?
There was an article I read in the last couple of days, he said apart from the first day crash, he couldn't watch the TDF. He didn't congratulate Froome until very recently, as a back handed compliment he also said he could not have matched the pace set by Froome. It will be interesting what team Sky does at the next TDF, who will be the lead rider?
I read somewhere that he had been doing some hard training prior to this tour, in Cyprus or Corsica (or somewhere). Maybe he'll just use this to get up to the mark for the Vuelta? On the final podium in Paris, there were Eddy Mercx, Bernard Hinault, etc. But no Bradley Wiggins. He avoided it - but was it media-shyness, sour grapes, or what? Who knows, but it seems that all is not right with Wiggy.
He's quite an insular person though isn't he - even though Froome had been nominated team rider, before his withdrawal Wiggins stated he would be racing to win! I can see Wiggins lining up for a different team next season. He probably feels hard done to by Sky.
I think it was an awkward situation - when Froome was pulled back, twice, in last year's Tour (to help Wiggins), the deal seemed to be that he would be Sky's leader this year. I don't think BW really accepted that.
Froome's the better rider. Wiggins should be happy that Froome helped him win the tour last year, there is no doubt in my mind that Froome would now have two tour wins if he hadn't been restricted by team orders last year.
A mate of mine, who writes for a cycling mag., came out with this notion: that Wiggins - like Boardman, like David Millar - started out as a time-triallist. The essence of that is that you ride on your own, you're not a team-player. Froome can time-trial, as has been seen, but is a road racer. A team rider.
Yes - you're right. But he switched to time-trialling. [Edit: his track racing was of an individual nature]
if you look at the range of Wiggins achievements across the Olympics and road racing then I think he is the better all rounder, but as a pure road rider, Froome has the edge and I'm sure will win more TdFs. I also think that when you consider what Wiggins did in 2012, 2013 was always going to be a huge anti climax for him.
Froome could have left Wiggins in a couple of the mountain stages and gained some time. Enough to win I'm not sure. Doesn't really matter. Wiggins won last year. I can't see him seriously contending in another grand tour though ! I'm not sure Froome will win next year with that Quintana fella !
I think it's a great story ! Three years ago he joined SKY with all that hype, saying he was going to win etc. And he flopped big style coming 24th or whatever. For him to come back, improve and win was a massive achievement ! The tour was set up for him though, two long flat time trials, a fantastic support rider, great team and no serious rivals. It was made for him to win.
As others have said, in my limited knowledge of the sport it really does seem as if he was a figurehead getting by on the coattails of others. Now the roles have been reversed and he's expected to sacrifice personal success for the good of the team he doesnt like it.
Agreed, Quintana rode up one of the mountain stages like it was flat - awesome! Plus he was born at altitude so lack of oxygen for him will be the norm.
Sky paid them to do their jobs, if they didn't like it they should have moved to a team that had a different role for them (as Cavendish did). Wiggins understandably wanted to defend his title, it would say a lot about his ambition as an athlete if he was happy to relinquish his title to be a support rider.
