Wigans goes there. Cadence!

[blackcat]

Not winners knees?

Christian?

 

[Fearless Greg Lemond]

Journalists also want their jobs to be safe:
http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/1...s-in-the-running-for-Tour-de-France-slot.aspx

While Dennis is in his first season as a professional and still needs to build experience, Vaughters is very excited by what he has seen thus far. “Rohan is an exceptional talent. He has the same physiological cues as Wiggins, showed evidence of climbing well at a young age (Wiggo won a mountain stage of l’Avenir in 2005, while Rohan was second overall in Avenir [actually second in the prologue - ed]).... And they both can produce exceptional power for four minutes in the pursuit and the team pursuit. That's a rare combo...very rare.”

 

[hrotha]

Journalists also want their jobs to be safe:
http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/1...s-in-the-running-for-Tour-de-France-slot.aspx

How many times has that stage win been debunked as a sign of early climbing prowess?

edit:

1 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Credit Agricole 4.13.55
2 Saul Raisin (USA) Credit Agricole 0.02
3 Steve Cummings (GBr) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 3.24
4 Leonardo Duque (Col) Jartazi Granville Team 3.26
5 Sebastien Duret (Fra) Bretagne-Jean Floc'h
6 Assan Bazayev (Kaz) Cycling Team Capec
7 Jesus Del Nero (Spa) Orbea
8 Pieter Mertens (Bel) Chocolade Jacques-T Interim
9 Philip Deignan (Irl) Ag2r Prevoyance
10 Denys Kostyuk (Ukr) Jartazi Granville Team
11 Julien Mazet (Fra) Auber 93
12 Alexandr Dyachenko (Kaz) Cycling Team Capec
13 Lars Bak (Den) Team CSC
14 Matija Kvasina (Cro) Perutnina Ptuj
15 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team CSC
16 Marc De Maar (Ned) Rabobank
17 Nicolas Crosbie (Fra) Agritubel
18 Gustavo Dominguez (Spa) Orbea
19 Olivier Bonnaire (Fra) Bouygues Telecom
20 Christophe Riblon (Fra) Ag2r Prevoyance
21 Christopher Myhre (Nor) Norwegian National Team
22 Alexey Kolessov (Kaz) Cycling Team Capec
23 William Walker (Aus) Rabobank
24 Patrick Mccarty (USA) USA National Team
25 Maxime Monfort (Bel) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago
26 Sébastien Minard (Fra) R.A.G.T. Semences
27 Eric Berthou (Fra) R.A.G.T. Semences
28 Yannick Talabardon (Fra) Credit Agricole
29 Hubert Dupont (Fra) R.A.G.T. Semences
30 Nicolas Dulac (Fra) R.A.G.T. Semences
31 Dailos Diaz Armas (Spa) Orbea

 

[goggalor]

Heh, that is vintage Vaughters. 2nd in the prologue turns into 2nd overall, and a hilly, two-man breakaway win turns into an early display of godlike climbing prowess.

 

[JimmyFingers]

Heard a whisper that Wiggins might have had keyhole surgery on his knee, anyone else?

 

[the sceptic]

Heard a whisper that Wiggins might have had keyhole surgery on his knee, anyone else?

Waiting for the official press release from Walsh.

 

[Don't be late Pedro]

Heard a whisper that Wiggins might have had keyhole surgery on his knee, anyone else?

Only makes sense if the presiding surgeon was a certain... Dr Ferrari.

 

[Fearless Greg Lemond]

How many times has that stage win been debunked as a sign of early climbing prowess?

More importantly:

General classification after stage 7
1 Lars Bak (Den) Team CSC 23.14.59
71 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Credit Agricole at 24.35

Like friggin Ludo Dierxens winning a medium mountain stage when the peloton doesnt care one bit.

But hey, that shows climbing prowess. I do wonder what Roger Legeay thinks of his signing now.

It is all about image, remember.

Thanks for the profile, was looking for that one.

 

[Bala Verde]

Last year was the year that everything finally came together, at the tender age of 32.

- SKY, the new kid on the block, wins a TdF inside the 5 year plan to deliver a TdF win!
- Wiggins, the first Brit, to win the TdF!
- Olympics in the U.K. and Wiggins to pick up the ITT gold medal at home!
- winner of some of the most prestigious one week races, including DL and PN!
- first person to win the TdF and an Olympic gold medal in the same year!

He gets knighted!

The first Brit to win the Tdf, the knighthood, and this (renewed) celebrity status (personality of the year!), will be a source of revenue until he dies. Book deals, conferences and lectures, cycling commentator/analyst, coaching, clothing lines, (cycling related) ads and marketing; he can choose to do anything he wants, no financial worries any more. His retirement seems as good as secured.

Sadly now, at the over-the-hill age of 33:

Bradley Wiggins has admitted he may never again target overall success at the Tour de France, hinting that he is no longer prepared to make the sacrifices he made in 2012 to dominate stage races and win the Tour de France.

What an incredible story. 2012: the year it all came together.

Someone should make a movie out of that.

 

[thehog]

Last year was the year that everything finally came together, at the tender age of 32.

- SKY, the new kid on the block, wins a TdF inside the 5 year plan to deliver a TdF win!
- Wiggins, the first Brit, to win the TdF!
- Olympics in the U.K. and Wiggins to pick up the ITT gold medal at home!
- winner of some of the most prestigious one week races, including DL and PN!
- first person to win the TdF and an Olympic gold medal in the same year!

He gets knighted!

The first Brit to win the Tdf, the knighthood, and this (renewed) celebrity status (personality of the year!), will be a source of revenue until he dies. Book deals, conferences and lectures, cycling commentator/analyst, coaching, clothing lines, (cycling related) ads and marketing; he can choose to do anything he wants, no financial worries any more. His retirement seems as good as secured.

Sadly now, at the over-the-hill age of 33:



What an incredible story. 2012: the year it all came together.

Someone should make a movie out of that.

He ten years time a bearded man will be sitting alone in a bar mumbling "HGH, cortisone, knighthood... where am I? EPO, blood, Nooooooooo"

 

[SundayRider]

He was ALWAYS trying to win the Tour for four years.

 

[oldcrank]

ten years time a bearded man will be sitting alone in a bar mumbling "HGH, cortisone, knighthood... where am I? EPO, blood, Nooooooooo"

Hopefully some kind soul will buy you a pint and a meat pie,
or fish and chips and have a few kind words for you.

 

[The Hitch]

He was ALWAYS trying to win the Tour for four years.

Not even that. In 2009 his aim was to come top 20 in the Tour de France. I remember the panel on Eurosport concluding that he was overreaching with that aim.
Thats what the Johnny come lately fans can't understand. You are not qualified to talk about these improvements if you werent around to see these riders for what they were pre magical transformation. Same with posters like Froome19 giving long essays on why froomes improvement is 100% clean when they only started watching the sport after he became Merckx.

Anyway, it was only after the 09 tour that wiggins started to talk about winning the Tour. Of course he never looked like winning the 2010 edition and came 24th (next to his bff) but yeah, he was always trying to win the tour lol.

 

[DirtyWorks]

Last year was the year that everything finally came together, at the tender age of 32.

Yeah, that pretty much says it all right there. The history of grand tour podiums is just littered with 32YO first-time winners.

The rest of the post is excellent too. Concise, ridiculous and accurate all at once.

 

[martinvickers]

Yeah, that pretty much says it all right there. The history of grand tour podiums is just littered with 32YO first-time winners.

You're right of course.

Sastre was 33. Evans was 34. not 32.

Garin was 32, mind.

 

[Netserk]

Sastre and Evans are such good examples of clean riders....

 

[the sceptic]

Everyone knows you hit the peak of human physiology when you are 32, but at 33 youre over the hill

 

[martinvickers]

Sastre and Evans are such good examples of clean riders....

Lemond aside, do you know any better?

 

[coinneach]

anyone else got an opinion on his knee injury?

since this thread is entitled "cadence", I thought it might be interesting to speculate.....

he's a star track rider at high cadence, but finds he he can't match the big boys on the road

he changes cadence, meaning he rides bigger gears

it works for a year or two, then bang, the knee says "enough"

he's finished

IMHO

 

[thehog]

anyone else got an opinion on his knee injury?

since this thread is entitled "cadence", I thought it might be interesting to speculate.....

he's a star track rider at high cadence, but finds he he can't match the big boys on the road

he changes cadence, meaning he rides bigger gears

it works for a year or two, then bang, the knee says "enough"

he's finished

IMHO

His TUEs was the problem.

Jamming way too much cortisone into his knees.

 

[Afrank]

anyone else got an opinion on his knee injury?

since this thread is entitled "cadence", I thought it might be interesting to speculate.....

he's a star track rider at high cadence, but finds he he can't match the big boys on the road

he changes cadence, meaning he rides bigger gears

it works for a year or two, then bang, the knee says "enough"

he's finished

IMHO

Honestly I think his knee injury was just an excuse.

 

[Wiggo Warrior]

Not even that. In 2009 his aim was to come top 20 in the Tour de France. I remember the panel on Eurosport concluding that he was overreaching with that aim.
Thats what the Johnny come lately fans can't understand. You are not qualified to talk about these improvements if you werent around to see these riders for what they were pre magical transformation. Same with posters like Froome19 giving long essays on why froomes improvement is 100% clean when they only started watching the sport after he became Merckx.

Anyway, it was only after the 09 tour that wiggins started to talk about winning the Tour. Of course he never looked like winning the 2010 edition and came 24th (next to his bff) but yeah, he was always trying to win the tour lol.

Coming 4th in that field in 2009 (even without starting as team leader as he apparently did) will have surely given him at least the inkling that it would be possible to win it one day.

2010 was horrible, not least because no-one at Sky at the time was focussing on developing rider fitness, following the standard, at the time, dictum that that was the responsibility of the riders and Wiggins was going through one of his irresponsible phases.

2011 he was on the sort of form that would have probably seen him podium the Tour before he broke his collarbone, and 2012 was a year when everything came together and he even managed to ride through the same pot hole as Froome on that early stage while not suffering a puncture as his team mate did.

Prior to 2009 he had accepted that he would never achieve that particular childhood dream of winning the Tour, (from his book) and after that 4th place suddenly he had hope. We can argue all day about whether the change in his ambition was due to diet, belief and luck, or the rest of the peloton reducing their dependence on the doping for whatever reason, or Wiggins himself crossing to the dark side after all his history of outspokenness on the subject, In my opinion it is a combination of the first two, in many peoples in this forum it is the latter.

In 2009 he was still a domestique at heart, and had to be forcefully trained to actually live with the heads of state on a few stages at the Giro that year. He still seems to lack the killer instinct that makes him want to win races although I noticed some signs in Catalunya this year particularly with the descent attack that he is maybe finally learning this skill and in my opinion again he has never prior to this year learned to be comfortable against anything other than the clock. He only won the tour when his team managed to convert that feat into numbers for him and circumstances aligned so that it all worked out according to plan.

Yes it was a tour suited to him with 100km of TT.

Yes he had a team-mate strong enough to win it himself who eventually came 2nd by about three minutes over third place, and helped pace him over the last few km of the mountain stages.

None of that invalidates what he did, turning himself from a pure chrono man whether over 4km or 40km into an all rounder capable of winning a Tour in the right circumstances.

I think he genuinely was 'trying' to win the Tour in 2010, but without the necessary base fitness due to lack of training. In 2011 he had the fitness but probably had lost too much weight and would have only podiumed at best if he hadn't been injured in the crash. In 2012 at a couple of kilos heavier he had the resilience to make it through the (relatively easy) race with a strong team supporting him.

I know I'm only a Johnny come Lately fan of road racing but I can read and make my own mind up. I commend him for deciding to go for another challenge rather than following the Tour Only template of LA etc. His attempt at the Giro came to naught but he had always stated prior to the race that Nibali was the favourite on his home ground and no-one could have predicted the conditions being as bad as they were.

I want to see him going for some one day challenges next year and maybe the year after before switching to a track team pursuit/road TT attempt on Rio because that is where I think he'd be happiest. I think Cav was right, he's not a natural born winner, but I think he's done enough over the last 13 years to prove himself one of the most physically gifted cyclists of his generation. Although in competition in IP he didn't beat 4:15, before the virus 5 weeks pre-Beijing he was originally targetting 4:12 which is a different kettle of fish, power wise, and the evidence that that improvement was on the cards dates back to his 2007 blogs, notably during his outspoken period.

Oh, and Froome is not Merckx, I'm not even convinced yet he can take this TdF and am half expecting Saxo and Contador to take him to the cleaners which as a Sky fan is an uncomfortable feeling.

 

[Alpechraxler]

Am I the only one that has the impression that Wiggans could be manic depressive ?

 

[Potomac]

Am I the only one that has the impression that Wiggans could be manic depressive ?

Sometimes I think he is, then other times not. It all depends on my mood.

 

[Gaul 58]

Vote Wiggins for Caymen Islands president

I still can't understand why the UK public voted Wiggins the Sports Personality of the Year when he has chosen not to be UK-branded any more.. surely as a taxpayer in the Caymen Islands and not paying a bean in the UK he should have stood as the 2012 Caymen Islands Sports Personality of the Year... I mean who pays for the ambulance when a cyclist hits a pothole in Lancashire and injures himself? who pays for kids in state schools to have teachers in Lancashire? Not sodding former UK citizens who now thing they are something else and can sit looking at their millions in some sunny land.