Wiggins Discussion thread.

[Pricey_sky]

Agreed. I think he could do a job as a domestique, but, lets see what he is like in the High mountains first and one a GT!

This is what I said. Send him to the Giro/Tour next season as a domestique and see how good he can be over 3 weeks before any predictions can be made.

 

[Afrank]

This is what I said. Send him to the Giro/Tour next season as a domestique and see how good he can be over 3 weeks before any predictions can be made.

I wouldn't send him to the Tour just yet, the tour is the biggest race for Sky and a lot of other teams. Meaning there will be more pressure and Sky will have to have riders who have proven they can handle a 3 week tour and remain strong throughout. If he does a GT it should be the Vuelta or Giro.

 

[rzombie1988]

Not sending Wiggo to the tour would be stupid. He'd have a stronger team than anyone else and he probably has the best shot at Contador.

 

[Zam_Olyas]

Not sending Wiggo to the tour would be stupid. He'd have a stronger team than anyone else and he probably has the best shot at Contador.

WIthout many tt km you really think so?

 

[rzombie1988]

WIthout many tt km you really think so?

Yep. He showed that he can hang in the mountains and he's going to probably beat Contador by a few seconds(not many) in the TT. He's also going to have a stronger team to support him than Contador.

 

[zapata]

I wouldn't send him to the Tour just yet, the tour is the biggest race for Sky and a lot of other teams. Meaning there will be more pressure and Sky will have to have riders who have proven they can handle a 3 week tour and remain strong throughout. If he does a GT it should be the Vuelta or Giro.

Wait a minute; is JTL really born in 1984? That's the same age as people like Nibali, Moreno, Nieve. When people started hyping him this spring I assumed he was 21 or something.

 

[Afrank]

Yep. He showed that he can hang in the mountains and he's going to probably beat Contador by a few seconds(not many) in the TT. He's also going to have a stronger team to support him than Contador.

Of course no one really attacked Wiggins in the mountains did they. There's a big difference between having your team pace you up the mountains and having to chase down countless attacks from guys like Contador.

 

[Afrank]

Wait a minute; is JTL really born in 1984? That's the same age as people like Nibali, Moreno, Nieve. When people started hyping him this spring I assumed he was 21 or something.

he has come back to the sport this year (or last year?), he left it for a while I believe.

 

[The Hitch]

Not sending Wiggo to the tour would be stupid. He'd have a stronger team than anyone else and he probably has the best shot at Contador.

Ever heard of Andy Schleck?

 

[The Hitch]

Of course no one really attacked Wiggins in the mountains did they. There's a big difference between having your team pace you up the mountains and having to chase down countless attacks from guys like Contador.

Wiggins said that its impossible to attack the sky train without doping. He also says the sport is clean now. Therefore, if Wiggins believes what he says Sky cannot lose next years tour unless they crash.

 

[zapata]

he has come back to the sport this year (or last year?), he left it for a while I believe.

We'll, if he's actually 29 next year, I'd send him to the TDF right away, and just see what happens, sink or swim.

 

[The Hitch]

We'll, if he's actually 29 next year, I'd send him to the TDF right away, and just see what happens, sink or swim.

Hes a punchy rider who says himself Ardennes is probably what suits him.,

 

[Jelantik]

Pff he won't win Giro, the climbers there will crush him on the hard climbs (well he might have a chance if the rumours that there will be100 km of tt are correct), and in la Vuelta Alberto will beat him

Hm.. i was wondering about that too. If Sky is saying that wiggin can win Giro/Vuelta, there could be a possibility that the rumor might be true (100km TT)? After all the organizer has said.. "it'll be a balanced route", to attract top contenders. Hm, I wonder if that would means. That's the only way Wiggin will have a chance!! Whoah, it's hard to see that there will be a 100km of TT in Giro?? TDF is one thing.. Giro? I hope NOT.

 

[El Pistolero]

Hes a punchy rider who says himself Ardennes is probably what suits him.,

He's probably never even been to the Ardennes.

 

[The Hitch]

He's probably never even been to the Ardennes.

So?
10 characters

 

[El Pistolero]

So?
10 characters

Didn't have much punch on the Cauberg, many hills like that in the Ardennes.

 

[Afrank]

Didn't have much punch on the Cauberg, many hills like that in the Ardennes.

He's never really raced on the Cauberg, plus it was the world championships, much higher level of competition.

 

[argyllflyer]

Wait a minute; is JTL really born in 1984? That's the same age as people like Nibali, Moreno, Nieve. When people started hyping him this spring I assumed he was 21 or something.

His ill health started aged 19 when a mystery and undiagnosed virus wiped him out in his last year mountain biking. Then when he was 20 he was riding in France as an amateur with UV-Aube and CC-Etupes and was seen as a prospect by British Cycling, being selected for the U23 World Championships in 2004 (coached by Jon Herety). Soon after, he wasn't in good health though.

“I thought I just had a cold at first, then I thought, no I’ve got a really, really bad cold. I felt awful, I had no energy and just couldn’t get out of bed and the team weren’t very understanding; they were just telling me that I had to race so I came back to the UK for what I thought would be just a break, and got a blood test and everything and they told me I had this Epstein-Barr virus, as well as being borderline anaemic and all these other underlying problems and they said that I had to stop racing so I quit there and then, so I wasn’t riding that long; one truly novice year in the UK, one year in France and then a couple months before I jacked it in.”

http://www.simonkeitch.com/blog/2011/05/19/jonathan-tiernan-locke/

“I turned my back on the sport. I went to university and thought about another career. I put on two stone, drank, partied and didn’t touch my bike. Keeping active for me was walking home from the pub totally p****d.”

http://www.pinoybikebrothers.org/t4...n-tiernan-locke-from-illnes-to-top-of-cycling

He didn't even think about cycling, he says, until 2008 when he took on a part-time job in a bike shop towards the end of his degree, and it was there he watched the Tour on TV and that re-lit his passion for the sport and racing. He signed up with Plowman Craven for 2009 but that fell through and after a fill-in at Sports Beans - Wilier, he signed up with John Herety's Rapha Condor Sharp for 2010, winning Tour of Britain KOM in 2011, before getting a shot at the 2.1 circuit with ambitious Endura Racing, ran by Brian Smith, for 2012.

Not exactly the route taken to the World Road Championships by others of 1984 vintage!

 

[The Hitch]

Didn't have much punch on the Cauberg, many hills like that in the Ardennes.

And what does it matter that hes never been to the ardennes?

 

[Winterfold]

And what does it matter that hes never been to the ardennes?

many hills like it in Devon too - where he comes from

 

[The Hitch]

many hills like it in Devon too - where he comes from

I know. Which is why i am confused by pistrolleros logic.

 

[El Pistolero]

How can he be an Ardennes type of rider if he's never ever ridden them. He has very little punch from what I saw at the Cauberg.

 

[hrotha]

Yeah, he could maybe stay with the best and get a top 10 here and there but no way he's suited for these races.

 

[argyllflyer]

How can he be an Ardennes type of rider if he's never ever ridden them. He has very little punch from what I saw at the Cauberg.

He's already stated he made a mistake to go with the two earlier attacks and had nothing left for the final ascent. He *is* a punchy type of rider and will show himself to be next season.

Anyway, a short but steep climb here from Tour of Britain stage 6:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvXjmAWf53w&feature=relmfu

(start from 4mins in and continues in subsequent parts at side)

 

[El Pistolero]

He's already stated he made a mistake to go with the two earlier attacks and had nothing left for the final ascent. He *is* a punchy type of rider and will show himself to be next season, especially people like you judging on the first 270km race in his career.

Anyway, a short but steep climb here from Tour of Britain stage 6:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvXjmAWf53w&feature=relmfu

(start from 4mins in)

Lol, how exactly did he waste energy in that breakaway? He never went to the front. It was just the same as sitting in the peloton, lame excuse.

And Gilbert also reacted to an attack on the penultimate ascent of the Cauberg yet still won rather easily. If he was already tired of that he's never going to feature in an Ardennes race as both the Amstel Gold Race and LBL are much harder. What's he going to do? Not react on attacks at the Roche aux Faucons because it will make him tired? Lol. Good luck waiting for Saint-Nicholas.

He's magically going to improve over long distance races? How does that work? In 4 months time we're supposed to expect he'll all of a sudden be much better? How can you explain that without going to the clinic?

Even Cavendish is a punchy rider in small races(Ster ZLM Toer).