Pulling a Wiggins

[BroDeal]

After juicing his performance to levels unseen in his career, Wiggins now cannot be bothered to ever try for a grand tour again. Convenient. Hesjedal was pretty much a joke this season. Even Contador does not seem willing to risk much. Is this the new strategy for doping: Dope yourself to the moon then coast on the results?

Who is next?

 

[hrotha]

The only truly documented case as far as I know (the others are possible or even likely, but there's other possible explanations) is Pereiro, who sent Jesús Losa a furious SMS after Dueñas was caught, because he felt Losa was reckless and his program was too risky. Pereiro said something along the lines of "fortunately I don't have any ambitions anymore so I didn't take that crap".

He won the Tour due to a fluke and knew he'd never do better than that. In 2007 he was still close to his usual level, but he soon became a joke.

I'm too lazy to dig up an article right now but I think I'm remembering it correctly.

 

[the sceptic]

Probably happens more often to donkeys that had little talent in the first place, so they look like jokes on lesser programs or off the juice.

Wonder how long the skeletons will be able to keep it up. Weight loss thing looks dangerous and unhealthy so not for long hopefully.

 

[Fatclimber]

Although he still does well in the hilly 1-dayers, Cunego doesn't come close in GT's to his Giro slaughtering perormance.

 

[Bag_O_Wallet]

After juicing his performance to levels unseen in his career, Wiggins now cannot be bothered to ever try for a grand tour again. Convenient. Hesjedal was pretty much a joke this season. Even Contador does not seem willing to risk much. Is this the new strategy for doping: Dope yourself to the moon then coast on the results?

Who is next?

Not sure if it's a matter of becoming risk-averse, but Gilbert's results seem to fit the category.

 

[Moose McKnuckles]

After juicing his performance to levels unseen in his career, Wiggins now cannot be bothered to ever try for a grand tour again. Convenient. Hesjedal was pretty much a joke this season. Even Contador does not seem willing to risk much. Is this the new strategy for doping: Dope yourself to the moon then coast on the results?

Who is next?

I'll go out on a limb and say...Horner.

Seriously, some of the last few grand tour winners have been complete jokes. It's ridiculous.

 

[BroDeal]

I'll go out on a limb and say...Horner.

Seriously, some of the last few grand tour winners have been complete jokes. It's ridiculous.

Yup. Horner is a good bet. Even if he decided to continue full bore, it would take a very special GT route to allow him to win again. A lot of risk for little reward.

The funny thing about the Wiggins situation is that last year he berated the public for being bone idle wnkers who never worked hard for anything in their lives. Now he is telling people that it is too much work to prepare for a grand tour.

 

[Ferminal]

After juicing his performance to levels unseen in his career, Wiggins now cannot be bothered to ever try for a grand tour again. Convenient. Hesjedal was pretty much a joke this season. Even Contador does not seem willing to risk much. Is this the new strategy for doping: Dope yourself to the moon then coast on the results?

Who is next?

Schleck (Tour de France winner!)
Evans
Gilbert
Hushovd
Sastre (2010-2011)

Although sometimes it may be hard to separate those who given up for this reason and those whose best results were achieved unsustainably.

 

[EnacheV]

Now you will start to appreciate Froome

2011 - 2012 - 2013 - .... - 2023? Hopefully, would be so nice and entertaining, from so many pov's

 

[Ferminal]

Yeh. Froome, unlike Wiggins, seems to have the ambition and commitment to get the most out of his career.

Not sure about the 2014 Giro winner though, I think as long as he stays with matey it will be all good, but a 2mil/year contract for 2015 onwards may be the end of it.

 

[sniper]

Lance Armstrong.
No more major wins after la Fleche Wallone 1996


serious though, for some of these guys health seems indeed an issue.
take Erik Breukink, never went full *** again after the intralipid affair (although the accident in 1993 played a role as well).

 

[Froomador]

Probably happens more often to donkeys like Wiggins that had little talent in the first place, so they look like jokes on lesser programs or off the juice.

Wonder how long Badzilla will be able to keep it up. Weight loss thing looks dangerous and unhealthy so not for long hopefully.

"Donkeys like Wiggins that had little talent" - got to love the level of intelligence that lurks around here .

You sit at your keyboard and in a spark of imperious wisdom call a bloke who's won the Tour de France, 7 Olympic medals (four of them Gold), forgot how many World titles a "donkey with no talent"

It appears many here have a great talent in making dim statements - the village salutes its new idiot

 

[King Boonen]

Yeh. Froome, unlike Wiggins, seems to have the ambition and commitment to get the most out of his career.

Not sure about the 2014 Giro winner though, I think as long as he stays with matey it will be all good, but a 2mil/year contract for 2015 onwards may be the end of it.

Huh? You think Wiggins hasn't got the most out of his career?

 

[coinneach]

Lance Armstrong.
No more major wins after la Fleche Wallone 1996


serious though, for some of these guys health seems indeed an issue.
take Erik Breukink, never went full *** again after the intralipid affair (although the accident in 1993 played a role as well).

Ha ha!

Do posters in this thread want to go back to the Lance days of boring cheating domination?

Winning a GT takes an amazing ammount out of you: many of the recent tour winners have been near the end of their careers and have used their experience to get the win. Its not surprising that's the highlight of their career, which they can't replicate (though some have tried harder than others)

Wiggins is no different from others in this regard, but if you can see cycling as more than grand tours, he has acheived an incredible ammount in his career, and its not over yet

 

[Wallace and Gromit]

Huh? You think Wiggins hasn't got the most out of his career?

I did have to chuckle at that assertion myself!

 

[JimmyFingers]

I think his stack of Olympic medals says otherwise quite frankly. He wants more, hence why he's switching his focus back to the track. But I guess riding track is being lazy.

 

[Ferminal]

Huh? You think Wiggins hasn't got the most out of his career?

Mean more his "potential career" i.e. on the basis that he could be highly competitive for several seasons more. Certainly not the case of his road career if this is indeed the end of it. Ok if he wins the ITT and has a couple of seasons of strong results in smaller stage races then it will not be bad. But it would be disappointing to see him go from winning the Tour at 32 in the best stage racing season in 4 years (at that point) to a ceremonial existence in the space of 12 months. If he wanted to he could have another 5 seasons of competing for wins/podiums in GTs. It would be a loss to the sport if this became more common.

His road achievements are basically:

Tour
Vuelta 3rd
Tour 4th
Paris-Nice
Romandie
Dauphine x2
Olympic ITT

All except one of those came in the space of 12 or so months.

 

[King Boonen]

Well he's said many times his focus wasn't on the road until late in his career. And lets be fair, his tour win was basically the planets aligning. Poor competition, TT-heavy parcours and the strongest team by a country mile. Coupled with it being a Olympic year, in London no less, where peaking for the Tour meant also peaking for the Olympics.

I'm not surprised he doesn't want to race another GT, the chances of him winning are very small and for guys like Wiggins it's all about winning.

Wiggins is a brilliant cyclist, I'll not take that away from him, and I hope we see him shine on the track again, but road racing is different. He doesn't want to be another one race a year only about the GT figure, he loves cycling too much for that. The track will allow him to back off on the weight loss, spend a bit more time at home and get back some confidence he's probably lost early this year.

He'd be relegated to a Tony Martin-esque role in the peloton. Able to compete in one week stage races and used as an engine at GTs. Not what he wants.

I wouldn't be surprised to see him have a stab at Paris-Roubaix over the next couple of years.

 

[hrotha]

And lets be fair, his tour win was basically the planets aligning. Poor competition, TT-heavy parcours and the strongest team by a country mile.

No whitewashing, please. Those planets apparently aligned for a whole year, and for all the ITT kilometers, the only rider who managed to drop Wiggins in the mountains was his teammate and domestique Froome.

 

[Ferminal]

I think I'm just a little frustrated that I put my faith in him for the Giro

 

[King Boonen]

No whitewashing, please. Those planets apparently aligned for a whole year, and for all the ITT kilometers, the only rider who managed to drop Wiggins in the mountains was his teammate and domestique Froome.

His competition was also rubbish throughout and his team was also the strongest. Wiggins only serious competition in the ITT would have been Martin, but he was still recovering.

The mountains in the Tour are perfectly suited to a guy like Wiggins who can grind it out with the best of them, just as they were for Cadel. We've seen what happens when things get steep in the Vuelta and the Giro (although in the Giro the descending didn't help).

TT specialists (or at least GT contendors who rely heavily on TT) winning the Tour is nothing new, particularly in recent years.

And this isn't a discussion of whether he was doping or not so there is no white-washing going on.

 

[King Boonen]

I think I'm just a little frustrated that I put my faith in him for the Giro

I did, although I thought it would be close. I think if the weather had been better he would have been much stronger, he didn't look happy at all in the lead up to it though. Hindsight is wonderful.

 

[sniper]

I'm not surprised he doesn't want to race another GT, the chances of him winning are very small and for guys like Wiggins it's all about winning.

indeed.
That explains why he was so upset about missing out on the 2009 tdf podium.
Furious he was, being cheated off the podium by proven dopers.

"I never thought when starting in Monaco that I'd see the end of the Tour. It's been so successful."

winners mentality right there.

 

[King Boonen]

indeed.
That explains why he was so upset about missing out on the 2009 tdf podium.
Furious he was, being cheated off the podium by proven dopers.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/cycling/5914106/Tour-de-France-2009-Bradley-Wiggins-relieved-it-is-over-after-sealing-fourth-spot.html
winners mentality right there.

Yes, because people never change do they? Clinic law, a riders ability, mentality and opinions must never, ever alter or he is a liar and a cheat.

And he's a liar and a chest anyway, they all are.

 

[hrotha]

His competition was also rubbish throughout and his team was also the strongest.

Ah yes, the old excuse. "Everybody else sucked and they botched up their preparations all year. The anomaly isn't Sky, it's everybody else".