Wiggins Discussion thread.

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argyllflyer

argyllflyer

Apr 6, 2012
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wwabbit said:
Looking at this seasons stage race results, I think Sky only needs to get rid of Wiggins. So far Sky has achieved 1st or 2nd in every stage race that Wiggins has not been in. It's hard to imagine that looking at his 2012 season, but this season Wiggins has been the weak link in the team.
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Totally agree. His continued habit of falling off the wagon post-success has hampered him this year, and additionally, the film about him really highlighted how much of an influence Shane Sutton was on him. His lack of racing miles cannot also have helped. Maybe bad luck but illness, mechanicals and his current level of ability (mental / physical combined) adds up to zero wins, TTTs apart. He may as well have stayed in Tenerife for all the good racing in Mallorca and Oman did him, and the two stage races thereafter showed him to be lacking against the best climbers when there's no ITT to separate the best from the rest.
 
Libertine Seguros

Libertine Seguros

Feb 20, 2010
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offbyone said:
I wonder if Wiggins was really that sick or just unmotivated since he couldn't likely win and decided to move on. A top 10 finish would have still been a good goal and honor.

I think it would be a tragedy for froome and team sky for him to ride the tour. If so they will have 2 protected riders and the wrong ones because the better choice for the second on this course would be porte. Wiggins has no chance to win the tour. He simply can't climb unless it is exactly on his terms.

Team sky is going to fall apart after this season. Too many chiefs, not enough indians.
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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?

Frank-Schleck-Giro-120504R300.jpg
 
Pricey_sky

Pricey_sky

Jul 12, 2012
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Ripper

Ripper

Sep 14, 2009
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webvan said:
That's not terribly steep is it? Let's see...http://www.climbbybike.com/climbmobile.asp?Col=Ax Bonascre - Ax-3-Domaines&qryMountainID=5681 - yeah nothing Wiggo can't power up if he's in good shape...

So no TDS for him? That's disappointing...
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Steep and long enough. Unless he is, ahem, very well prepared.

Look - Wiggo is not a climber. This year all the climbers are turning up and le Tour has a fair bit more real climbing. And less long TTing. Which means way less Wiggo-factor.

God help him if it rains.
 
W

webvan

Mar 11, 2009
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Right, clearly not as favorable to him as in 2012, I was just pointing out that Ax is nowhere near as steep as where we've seen him dropped in the past 3 years, namely Angliru and in the 20% section on Tuesday when he was, apparently, already feeling under the weather. Doesn't mean he'll do well on Ax of course just that he's not setting out with a big handicap.
 
F

Ferminal

Jul 3, 2009
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Does it really matter? I mean he's never once shown that he's the strongest man on a climb of any gradient (maybe he was Covatilla). Even on 2012 form he would still need an improvement to not lose 20 seconds to the likes of Froome and Rodriguez in the final few km of each MTF.

I do agree about Bonascre though.
 
Publicus

Publicus

Mar 17, 2009
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Ferminal said:
Does it really matter? I mean he's never once shown that he's the strongest man on a climb of any gradient (maybe he was Covatilla). Even on 2012 form he would still need an improvement to not lose 20 seconds to the likes of Froome and Rodriguez in the final few km of each MTF.
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Well according to Wiggins he was on the best form of his career numbers-wise at the Giro, so I guess it is possible that he's improved enough to avoid those kinds of losses to Froome-dawg and Purito
 
Jelantik

Jelantik

Jul 19, 2010
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Cyivel said:
Talking to Sky Italia
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Publicus said:
Well according to Wiggins he was on the best form of his career numbers-wise at the Giro, so I guess it is possible that he's improved enough to avoid those kinds of losses to Froome-dawg and Purito
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Don't forget, Froome even said he was surprise that TDF stages this year don't have a real mountain stage. All of them are a long steady climb that actual suits wiggins strength. And with wiggin's claim about his new climbing skill to tackle the Giro climb (which is steeper than TDF), wiggins might be not as bad as we thought.
 
thehog

thehog

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Jul 27, 2009
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Jelantik said:
Don't forget, Froome even said he was surprise that TDF stages this year don't have a real mountain stage. All of them are a long steady climb that actual suits wiggins strength. And with wiggin's claim about his new climbing skill to tackle the Giro climb (which is steeper than TDF), wiggins might be not as bad as we thought.
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Enough.

Seriously.

Enough.
 
W

webvan

Mar 11, 2009
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Jelantik said:
Don't forget, Froome even said he was surprise that TDF stages this year don't have a real mountain stage. All of them are a long steady climb that actual suits wiggins strength. And with wiggin's claim about his new climbing skill to tackle the Giro climb (which is steeper than TDF), wiggins might be not as bad as we thought.
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Really? Where did Froome say that?
 
Jelantik

Jelantik

Jul 19, 2010
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webvan said:
Really? Where did Froome say that?
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I've been looking for his article when he said that. I remembered while reading it I was wondering about those comments, especially with the fact that Froome has shown his climbing pedigree since vuelta 2011. The article wasn't about Froome it was some snippet comment over article about wiggins or something. It was a little while back.

oh well, guess no proof, not true then. Consider it *sarcastic comment* (tongue and cheeck)
 
airstream

airstream

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Mar 29, 2011
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Ripper said:
Look - Wiggo is not a climber. This year all the climbers are turning up and le Tour has a fair bit more real climbing. And less long TTing. Which means way less Wiggo-factor.
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I bet many GC climbers would have sold their souls to become 'not a climber' like Wiggins in the 2012 Tour.
 
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