- Apr 6, 2012
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wwabbit said:
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.
Fatclimber said:
It was still a good move on his part, IMO. Best GT team around by a huge margin. "Easiest" way to win the TDF, even with Wiggins around.
- Feb 20, 2010
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offbyone said:
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?
- Jul 12, 2012
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Fatclimber said:
Yes he will be, Sky have some of the best mountain domestique's around to fight for GT's. I would imagine he will also be on a decent wage too!
- Jul 12, 2012
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Publicus said:The TdF just got a whole lot more interesting. Wiggins will be fresh and sporting a shiny #1 on his back. July is going to be great
Come Ax-3 when Froome and Contador go up the road, Wiggins will know who the number 1 will be.
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...
So no TDS for him? That's disappointing...
- Jul 12, 2012
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webvan said:
No its not, my point was that when the attacks start coming he wont be able to go with them. Let's face it his team wont be helping if Froome joins Contador up the road.
webvan said:
Sure. It's steep enough for Froome to have a clear advantage, though. Pailheres is a nice one to soften the legs a bit, as well.
- Sep 14, 2009
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webvan said:
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.
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.
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.
I do agree about Bonascre though.
- Jul 19, 2010
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Cyivel said:
Publicus 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.
- Jul 19, 2010
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webvan said:
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)
- Apr 11, 2009
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Stephen Roche's view on Brad in the Giro, and Brad vs. Froome:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/ot...-with-Chris-Froome-in-the-Tour-de-France.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/ot...-with-Chris-Froome-in-the-Tour-de-France.html
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