Do you believe the excuse that Wiggins is Sick?

[Netserk]

Let me quote this:

When unmotivated, it's a lot easier to decide to give up due to a minor ailment.

Wiggins has achieved all he needs to, what else is there? I get the feeling he wanted to defend his Tour title all along, but had been caught in two minds with the whole Giro-Tour thing. He lost his nerve after the crash on the rainy descent (he's never been a good descender, but in this race he's been being dropped on downhills in stages categorised as flat, not even Basso could do that), and once he felt he could no longer win, he had no inclination to scrap for the lesser placings when he could drop out and focus on the Tour.

Hold up: terrible descender turns up at Giro but really intends on focusing at Tour, quits the race while still within a pretty good distance of the lead?

 

[IndianCyclist]

If a cyclist is seriously sick, he usually tends to lose a lot of time typically ~20 min to close to time cut. That has been seen with lots of riders Basso, Voigt etc. Also this is typically when the race gets hard like the mountains or very early in the stage. So far Wiggins has lost time in downhill and on the flats only when it rained. The amount of time lost - a few minutes. He & his team says he is physically in the best shape of his life. I think this is very true. They would have the data to prove it. But mental toughness is a whole different ball game. An example of mental toughness would be Contador or Voeckler in 2011 Tour. Wiggins does not have it. One crash in the Giro in the rain was sufficient to bring out all the demons of his 2011 tour where he suffered the broken collarbone. After that it was all finito. On stage 12 he literally gave up. He may have been suffering from some cold but he has the capability to finish in the same time as Cavendish. It was not a sufficient excuse to quit but necessary to convince the sponsors that it would be a waste of time to continue while getting lot of negative publicity. This is not intended to be a criticism of Wiggins as a lot of people in this world are that way.
All in all a sensible decision by Sky management. There was nothing left to gain. They will work on his descending capabilities and more importantly on his psychological condition as well which would have been badly bruised.

 

[Telmisartan new]

He chucked it mentally,thats my take on it too Indian cyclist,he's sick,peloton is sick but he just didnt fancy it after his crash and with possible more bad weather attrition to come.As Jelantik said before,theres no point in Sky/Wiggo fanboys trying to dress this up as illness stopped him in this Giro,he was "descending like an old granny" and confidence was shot to bits.

 

[Ripper]

If a cyclist is seriously sick, he usually tends to lose a lot of time typically ~20 min to close to time cut.

He chucked it mentally,thats my take on it too ...

Bam and Bam. This and I don't think he was that commited to the Giro from the beginning.

Not really as commited to the year actually. Ode to the loss of Shane.

 

[GPdesAmeriques]

New Poll: Do you believe that Gilbert abandoned the Tour of California for the birth of his son?

Or was it the heat?

 

[Jelantik]

He is not sick. The Giro is a harder race, his competitors are much better than him and he is not as motivated for this imo. I also believe he has a lot on his mind with team issues.

Let's just say that he is indeed sick. So that the reason why he is leaving. But the motivation part might be worth a discussion. If we are all remember, Froome and Wiggins had a war in press over the TDF leadership. And finally Dave had to come out and say Froome is the TDF leader. What do you think that do to wiggins mental state and mind? If you listened and read wiggins interview prior to Giro, he sounded that dave would be the ultimate decision maker. But the way he said it as if he predicted or maybe "thought" (in his mind) that dave would most likely air to his side. When he said it, he must believe (in his mind) that he probably had an upper hand getting the leadership for TDF. Then back to the Giro. His Giro started on the right track. Dave's announcement came after Wiggin's Giro started. Then whether this is just coincidence or not, we saw first mistake wiggins made. He was sit too far back probably and get held by the crash. 17 seconds lead, puff. He admitted it was partially his fault. Then the unexpected wet descent. He lost tons of time. Then his TT was par for his standard. Maybe at that point he did started to get sick. But, as strong as the physical, I think the mental distraction played part of his unravelling. Contador was exhausted mentally during Lance vs contador saga.

but again, that's just some conspiracy theory Who said i'm a psychologist either?

 

[thehog]

If TommyD can finish anyone can.

 

[iZnoGouD]

Anyone who thinks this is all made up is a big ***

 

[Jazasz]

If we are all remember, Froome and Wiggins had a war in press over the TDF leadership. And finally Dave had to come out and say Froome is the TDF leader. What do you think that do to wiggins mental state and mind? If you listened and read wiggins interview prior to Giro, he sounded that dave would be the ultimate decision maker. But the way he said it as if he predicted or maybe "thought" (in his mind) that dave would most likely air to his side.

If brad thought this then he has had his head in the sand. The question of who would lead was answered in 2012. Only if froome looked really bad this year or some other incident would brad lead.

 

[Roderick]

A real Sir does not lie about his sniffles

 

[Jelantik]

If brad thought this then he has had his head in the sand. The question of who would lead was answered in 2012. Only if froome looked really bad this year or some other incident would brad lead.

if you followed his interview from last year to right few days from the Giro, you'll see that his head isn't only buried in the sand, but also he is living in another fantasy land.

last year interview: that i can find.
http://www.maxcycling.tv/index.php/cycling-news/588-wiggins-snub-toue-de-france-to-support-froome

fast forward prior to giro:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2013/apr/29/bradley-wiggins-giro-italia-tour

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/ot...ley-Wiggins-Sir-Dave-Brailsford-confirms.html

 

[ozerulz]

Sir wiggo believes only he has the right to lead at the tdf. Hes useless as a domestique as he has to be carried to the line just to win anyways. More bs drama to come. I hope Froome just plays along and dumps his *** on the first big climb.

 

[Jelantik]

all right what next for him? Dauphene? Suisse? Or Is wiggins going to stay in training camp at tenerife until TDF? you know keep the less racing leg? boy he might go all the way to la Vuelta just to race for 60 days

 

[maxmartin]

all right what next for him? Dauphene? Suisse? Or Is wiggins going to stay in training camp at tenerife until TDF? you know keep the less racing leg? boy he might go all the way to la Vuelta just to race for 60 days

sure why not? Tour-Vuelta double is still on the table And beat Contador and Froom twice must feel good

 

[thehog]

all right what next for him? Dauphene? Suisse? Or Is wiggins going to stay in training camp at tenerife until TDF? you know keep the less racing leg? boy he might go all the way to la Vuelta just to race for 60 days

Solitary confinement. A shrink. Self-help books. Tony Robbins.

 

[cineteq]

New Poll: Do you believe that Gilbert abandoned the Tour of California for the birth of his son?

Or was it the heat?

Talk to Miburo, he's the only one who can post these kind of threads.

 

[Pippo_San]

All aside, my personal theory is that removing his sideburns was the real big mistake.
It clearly brought up a bad connection between him and the mod world, which ultimately led to

- no motivation (caught behind in the first stages)
- depression (caught behind again!)
- fear (zero descending skills)
- hysteria (no talking to anyone)
- rage (bike throw)
- more depression (lack of power)
- immunodeficiency (flu, chest infection and whatever)

If he wants to win the Tour 2013 he'd better grow those sideburns again!

 

[JRanton]

I tend to somehow put faith in people and believe in them, yet there's something deeply disappointing about this whole affair.

Ok maybe he just left because he was ill. Ok.
But I still can't convince myself over the "descending-like-a-girl" show and TT fiasco.

IIRC correctly, in Catalunya he forced a selection downhill. Then he goes to the Giro and "OH MY GAWD THAT'S A FRAKKIN DOWNHILL I'M SCARED".
What the hell?
And the TT fiasco? Ok maybe he was already ill, who knows. But come on? That's not even REMOTELY near the Wiggins at le Tour 2012.

The question isn't really if he is / isn't sick. The question is if his fitness was actually comparable to the Tour 2012, and so if the plan was really to go full out at this Giro.
I'm not convinced about it, not even vaguely.

I think it's clear that his fitness wasn't comparable to Tour 2012 despite what Wiggins and Kerrison would have us believe. They tried to cram too much training into too short a time period, with no time for a break like Wiggins had after Paris-Nice and Romandie last year.

He pretty much trained seriously from January-April 2013 non-stop for the Giro, compared to Nov 2011 to June 2012 (with sufficient rest along the way) for last year's Tour. For example, I read that he only visited Tenerife once in preparation for the Giro compared to five blocks of training in Tenerife for the 2012 Tour. He wasn't prepared to go on the two week+ camps to Tenerife this year because he didn't want to be away from family for that long. So he trained in Majorca during the week and went home to England at the weekends.

That's all completely understandable after the 2012 that he had, but he's left himself open to plenty of justifiable criticism due to his pre-Giro comments and due to his frankly pathetic descending that made Andy Schleck look like a brave warrior in comparison.

 

[Jelantik]

I think it's clear that his fitness wasn't comparable to Tour 2012 despite what Wiggins and Kerrison would have us believe. They tried to cram too much training into too short a time period, with no time for a break like Wiggins had after Paris-Nice and Romandie last year.

He pretty much trained seriously from January-April 2013 non-stop for the Giro, compared to Nov 2011 to June 2012 (with sufficient rest along the way) for last year's Tour. For example, I read that he only visited Tenerife once in preparation for the Giro compared to five blocks of training in Tenerife for the 2012 Tour. He wasn't prepared to go on the two week+ camps to Tenerife this year because he didn't want to be away from family for that long. So he trained in Majorca during the week and went home to England at the weekends.

That's all completely understandable after the 2012 that he had, but he's left himself open to plenty of justifiable criticism due to his pre-Giro comments and due to his frankly pathetic descending that made Andy Schleck look like a brave warrior in comparison.

one. That might be true. He seemed strained coming to del trentino.

http://velonews.competitor.com/2013/04/news/wiggins-rough-ahead-of-giro-del-trentino_282170

two. kerrison might be too aggresive with wiggins' training and convince with his number. After all wiggins said kerrison believes wiggins can do the Giro/Tour double feat.

 

[Jelantik]

Solitary confinement. A shrink. Self-help books. Tony Robbins.

LOL. You must really hate wiggins. I don't like wiggins either, but I guess I still spare him some sympathy and give him a benefits of the doubt .

 

[diorgen]

Well said.

I used to read this site often but got feed up reading the nonsense most of the poster on here dribble out.

Every now and again I think lets have a look what the morons are saying today and am never disappointed by these moronic comments.

This site seems to be for childish pr*cks who make comments on riders based on if they like them or not, nothing seems to be based on objective observation, some of the comments are just unbelievable.

I love the sport of cycling and don't feel the need to hate or obsess about 1 rider or another, luckily there are many other boards where you can have intelligent conversation about the sport and the riders.

I will add that there are some good posters on here but they seem to get drowned out by the idiots.

Translation: I'm British

 

[hfer07]

one. That might be true. He seemed strained coming to del trentino.

http://velonews.competitor.com/2013/04/news/wiggins-rough-ahead-of-giro-del-trentino_282170

two. kerrison might be too aggresive with wiggins' training and convince with his number. After all wiggins said kerrison believes wiggins can do the Giro/Tour double feat.

..But if he was in fact affected by Illness before Trentino, then shouldn't have been better to take a break & build up for Il Giro with proper health? Also he wasn't helping at all by introducing the PR BS on the "numbers" & how "ahead" he was in his training- He was either prepared or not- can't just play both & then embarrass himself on the first week of Il Giro...

 

[maxmartin]

..But if he was in fact affected by Illness before Trentino, then shouldn't have been better to take a break & build up for Il Giro with proper health? Also he wasn't helping at all by introducing the PR BS on the "numbers" & how "ahead" he was in his training- He was either prepared or not- can't just play both & then embarrass himself on the first week of Il Giro...

Like I said. lair lair pants on fire, there are so much PR s**t, you just don't know which version is true.

 

[Ryongsyong]

Translation: I'm British

I don't support Brad but I do support what that poster wrote. This forum is jammed full of trolls and imbeciles and it's best to avoid engaging with anyone if you're expecting a serious discussion. I come here from time to time to see the altimetry and see what time TV coverage starts, but I'd never dream of even bothering to try talking to most of the nutcases on here. Good on him for trying; he's a braver man than me.

In the end it doesn't matter but the mods should be a little disappointed at how bad they've let this forum become. Luckily there are much better ones out there than this mental hospital.

 

[BroDeal]

I don't support Brad but I do support what that poster wrote. This forum is jammed full of trolls and imbeciles and it's best to avoid engaging with anyone if you're expecting a serious discussion. I come here from time to time to see the altimetry and see what time TV coverage starts, but I'd never dream of even bothering to try talking to most of the nutcases on here. Good on him for trying; he's a braver man than me.

In the end it doesn't matter but the mods should be a little disappointed at how bad they've let this forum become. Luckily there are much better ones out there than this mental hospital.

Message to queen. Message to queen. Stiff upper lips have gone limp. Empire crumbling in three, two, one...[static]