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"Sir Bradley Wiggins set to miss 2014 Tour de France"
(42 posts)-
Posted 10 years ago #
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I'm guessing Froome wants someone who will actually support him?
Posted 10 years ago # -
I think Sky are not taking the risk.
Posted 10 years ago # -
I'm sure there are lots of good reasons, but will make watching the TdF much less interesting for us. Watching wiggo on a bike is just damn impressive. Dont get that from Froome at all.
Posted 10 years ago # -
"I think Sky are not taking the risk."
The other risk being that he squashes him on the TT and ends up ahead of him.... Oops.
Posted 10 years ago # -
I like Wiggo but I think it's proved impossible for him to practice what he preached, i.e. that he'd be happy to be Froome's super domestique.
He'll move on to get top dog billing again or just go back to the track.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Likely wiggo would have won the tour the year before if he had not crashed.
Now I feel he is passed his best which is not to say he would not still win time trials.
Nairomquintano versus Froome should be interesting to watch in the mountains
Posted 10 years ago # -
Quintana has really blossomed this year, going from shy and brilliant to confident and brilliant. If he's the real deal (drug free, and I hate ever having to add that), he could be a the top for many years to come, and a rarity - a Colombian who can do more than just climb.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Quintana not riding tour this year after winning Giro. We shall havr to wait till next year for a Quintana / Froome dual in the mountains. Valverde will lead Movistar this year.
Posted 10 years ago # -
"Past his best"
Yes. Possibly, but would have been nice to have more time to enjoy it - us, not him.
Posted 10 years ago # -
That's a pity, the Froome/Wiggins interaction could have been quite dramatic. As Richard Moore said the other day at the Lyceum, a bit like the rivalry between Hinault and Lemond in <insert date here>.
Posted 10 years ago # -
^^ '85 '86. ^^^
It seems to me that Wiggins is saying he won't ride for Froome. I find that a bit disappointing and childish tbh. After all, he wouldn't have won without Froomes support in 2012 and he is paid to do a job. I have to work for a guy I don't like every day!
Posted 10 years ago # -
Posted 10 years ago #
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this rambles on a bit, but interesting points made
http://spokeydokeyblog.com/2014/06/07/the-madness-of-sir-dave/
Posted 10 years ago # -
From the robert millar blog:
"Things are pretty desperate when a national hero like Bradley Wiggins, first British winner of the Tour, one of the most successful Olympians, BBC Sportsman of the Year, honoured by the Queen, feted and admired throughout the land isn't at the start of a Tour de France in his own country."
This is basically my take. It's totally ungrounded in any knowledge of the details of racing. Just a gut level response. But good to know I'm not alone.
Posted 10 years ago # -
@firedfromtheci Hasn't Wiggins been saying he would ride for Froome ("it's Chris's team" etc)? The problem is, Froome/Brailsford don't believe him. This is understandable given that Wiggins has a pretty solid track record of riding well below standard when he can't be *rsed.
It is, however, a shame for the punter as most of us want to be entertained with a bit of soap opera (the real basis of most sport coverage). Froome seems to be super talented, but he also seems to be rather dull. Wiggins is rarely dull.
It does seem to be something of a management failure that Team Sky can't make it work.
Posted 10 years ago # -
@PS
Sky/Dave Brailsford haven't picked the team yet. It's Wiggins who is saying he won't ride the Tour. Sky will pick the team after the Swiss tour and the Dauphine are finished.I would love to see a two pronged attack from Sky. The two of them can support each other in most stages (if they can grow up!) and then let the best man win when it comes to time trials and the mountains. I think Froome could put more time into Wiggins in the hills than the other way around though, and I think Wiggins knows this. I reckon he just doesn't want to be put in a position where he has to ride for Froome. If that is the case, then it is a shame as the guy is a legend for what he has accomplished in the sport. Maybe just suffering from an ego as big as his talent.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Wiggins has a pretty solid track record of riding well below standard when he can't be *rsed
+1. I've watched Wiggins not put a shift in on multiple occasions, and has gone missing when he's supposed to be part of a team supporting another rider.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Has been mentioned the problem here is that both riders are still in the same team. When such clashes occur in cycling (also I think in Grand Prix) the two big personalities go their separate ways. Usually one going to another team and the other staying put. Contractual arrangements will be preventing this? Instead wiggins not riding any of the big tours as he is going back to the track?? How hilly is this year's Tour de France? Froome wouldn't be helping wiggins up any big climbs again.
Posted 10 years ago # -
@firedfromtheci Nah, this is Wiggins reading the mood music at Sky (and putting in a last ditch attempt to change the decision through a PR bid to get the public to rise up and demand he be included in the team). He knows Froome's going to out climb him on most of the summit finishes.
Posted 10 years ago # -
I think Wiggins would've ridden for Froome...but Froome has effectively torpedoed any rapprochement with his 'yeah, yeah this has been sorted...but I still gotta say it' autobiography.
Wiggo will go to another team, Orica are likely, and probably flourish as they'll make him number 1. I think he has at least one more year at the top left in the tank. Dave B at Sky has let this situation get out of hand. OK so there's no emotion in Sky's team selection...but treat the guy like a human being, huh?
As far as I can see, all the statements from Wiggo have been conciliatory. Froome's output has been...well, not so conciliatory. Do Sky have tons of form right now? Froome yes. Thomas definitely. Not so sure about the rest...
Posted 10 years ago # -
I didn't know the British Cycling story, but did wonder if that column wasn't on some level as much about Millar as about Wiggins.
http://www.irishpeloton.com/2014/06/the-great-british-enigma/
still not sure that invalidates anything he said though
Posted 10 years ago # -
I go with Robert millar over the Irish peloton analysis, also brailsford, Froome and also sir brad. Millar was highly climber winning KOM in TdF and cheated from winning Vuelta by his own team. He did wht he did without the backing of sky and he writes with lucidity
Posted 10 years ago # -
Froome is just so boring and dull. There's nothing about him I find interesting. Great cyclist but dull dull dull!
Posted 10 years ago # -
Porte's shift at the Dauphine today probably ends the speculation
Posted 10 years ago # -
I've just started reading Froome's autobiography (a gift fro my girlfriend), "The Climb" and it's started off anything but dull. Of course, it's ghost-written (with David Walsh), so that could account for it being a lively read, but it's an interesting beginning so far.
Rabbits, a snake, a 'Black Lion', punishing rides and a privileged upbringing leading to a family break-up.
Posted 10 years ago # -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/27904522
<quote> Sir Bradley Wiggins has withdrawn from the Tour of Switzerland through injury, less than three weeks before the start of the Tour de France. </quote>
Posted 10 years ago # -
"
Tinkoff-Saxo boss says Froome's biggest rival Contador is in form of life
"
http://road.cc/content/news/121587-riis-sky-making-huge-mistake-if-wiggins-left-out-tour-team
Posted 10 years ago # -
"
Sir Dave Brailsford says that it will be logic not emotion that will determine Team Sky’s line-up at the Tour de France, which starts in Leeds a week on Saturday, but admits that striking a balance between choosing a winning team and keeping fans happy is “terrifically difficult.”
"
Posted 10 years ago #
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