Wiggins Discussion thread.

[offbyone]

There is no way he wants to just ride the tour as a domestique, he wants to compete for the win. I get it, but you can't have that distraction when you have the returning champ. But the thing of it is, he has plenty of other big races he could go after, yet he doesn't. He is quite an enigma.

The bottom line is that if Wiggins wants to win a race then he should go enter one. The Giro was his to ride this year, but instead he rode with the b riders in cali. Last year he basically sat out the season. Clearly him and Froome still have issues or they would be riding at least some races together.

I hope he rides the Vuelta and really competes.

 

[Jelantik]

Just a guess but who does Froome need to like him is best mate is Porte who is not bad eh?. Porte has more chance than Wiggins in the TDF, Porte has actually a few times been as strong as Froome uphill. AX-3 Porte was a monster. Also Ventoux and Alpe. I maybe wrong but i think G likes Froome aswell more than Wiggo.

G is actually Brad's friend. (remember reading somewhere about who is in the team that Brad talks to. Makes sense since they are from track). And if G likes froome better, that's because he needs to kiss froome's a-ss so he can ride TDF. Other wise he is a goner. Froome has a lot of say who's in the team and who's not.

 

[Swifty's Cakes]

I know this is the Wiggins discussion thread but it has been totally taken over by infatuated Wiggins' fans.

You cannot run a team of any sort, be it in business, sport or the girl guides when your two principals are more focused on doing each other down than achieving the goal.

Wiggins with his regular childish tantrums interspersed with offish, snide comments and uncooperative behaviour every time he has ridden with Froome has made it plain that the only team he (Wiggins) can ride on is one where everybody else bends to his will and what he wants. He is a typical only child.

The individual pursuit and time trialling are the perfect events for him. No need to work in a team, just him and the coaches, everybody involved pulling for Brad.

He gave Brailsford no choice. "Sir Dave" would have been crazy to pick him. I don't know what you are all whining about. You must have no management experience.

Agree with a lot of this, Wiggins is not an easy character to accomodate but I think it ignores a question mark against Brailsford/Sky management, not so much in the decision thats been made public today which you make a strong case for, but in terms of what they've been doing for the last 6 months.

Wiggins has been saying all year he wants to ride the tour as a support rider so why has no-one taken him to one side and said "its Froome's team so its not happening for you"?
You want to talk about no management experience, then to let this rumble on for the whole season is rank amatuerism, and it isn't just this season, all last spring Wiggins was talking us his chances for the tour until he got injured. Considering Brailsfords unemotional hard man reputation he looks a chump for not dealing with it a long time ago.

 

[wirral]

Why was Froome not allowed to compete in 2012? Wiggins and Froome had a deal. Wiggins gets to go for 2012 - the olympic one with all the hype.

Froome gets 2013 - the after the Lord Mayors show one.

Wiggins was perfectly fine with it for the whole of 2012, even trying to get respect points by pretending to the media he was going to let Froome have the 2013 Tour out of pure benevolence and saying he only ever wanted to win one TDF anyway.

Then, once he got all the good things out of the deal and it was time for him to give back, suddenly Wiggins wants to go back on the deal.

Absolutely spot on.

 

[wirral]

Agree with a lot of this, Wiggins is not an easy character to accomodate but I think it ignores a question mark against Brailsford/Sky management, not so much in the decision thats been made public today which you make a strong case for, but in terms of what they've been doing for the last 6 months.

Wiggins has been saying all year he wants to ride the tour as a support rider so why has no-one taken him to one side and said "its Froome's team so its not happening for you"?
You want to talk about no management experience, then to let this rumble on for the whole season is rank amatuerism, and it isn't just this season, all last spring Wiggins was talking us his chances for the tour until he got injured. Considering Brailsfords unemotional hard man reputation he looks a chump for not dealing with it a long time ago.

Valid point.

Is it possible that Murdoch jr was pushing from above for something that Brailsford knew was unworkable?

 

[wirral]

There is no way he wants to just ride the tour as a domestique, he wants to compete for the win. I get it, but you can't have that distraction when you have the returning champ. But the thing of it is, he has plenty of other big races he could go after, yet he doesn't. He is quite an enigma.

The bottom line is that if Wiggins wants to win a race then he should go enter one. The Giro was his to ride this year, but instead he rode with the b riders in cali. Last year he basically sat out the season. Clearly him and Froome still have issues or they would be riding at least some races together.

I hope he rides the Vuelta and really competes.

Absolutely correct.

However Wiggins needs a stage race with a long flattish TT to gain minutes on his rivals and not too much in the way of gradients over 10% on the mountain stages to limit his losses.

This year's Tour of California - Tick
This year's Giro - No Chance

This year's Tour de Suisse - Tick
This year's Dauphine - No

In addition he has to avoid Froome.

So you can see not that many prestigious stage races fit his criteria.

 

[Richeypen]

I feel Skys biggest misunderstanding here is that cycling fans tend to support riders not teams. My fav riders on Sky are Wiggins, Thomas and EBH (and Stanard) and I will support them wherever they go next year. A lot of British fans will only know of Team Sky because of Wiggins, you wont get people booing Froome on the road but it will be interesting to see the general support for Sky after the Tour. Wiggins seams to be a brand to himself in the UK just like Beckham was (not as extreme though). If Froome were to win the Tour and Wiggins announced he were leaving Sky it would be hard to see which would take priority in the press.

I have supported Sky because of some of the riders on their roster not because of some blind nationalistic trait drawing me to a specific team. Once those riders have left the team I couldn't give a **** about Sky, it will be interesting to see the UK public enthusiasm for Sky if their Olympic 'Heroes ' leave the team next year.

If Wiggins is Beckham in the press then Froome has the undeniable stench of Graham Taylor

 

[Richeypen]

Absolutely correct.

However Wiggins needs a stage race with a long flattish TT to gain minutes on his rivals and not too much in the way of gradients over 10% on the mountain stages to limit his losses.

This year's Tour of California - Tick
This year's Giro - No Chance

This year's Tour de Suisse - Tick
This year's Dauphine - No

In addition he has to avoid Froome.

So you can see not that many prestigious stage races fit his criteria.

Could anyone see Froome finishing with the likes of Cancellara and Boonen in P-R? Wiggo's season has not been limited just to stage races. Wiggo's performance on the cobbles is a big asterisk next to his name compared to the modern generation of purely specialised stage racers.

 

[karlboss]

If Wiggins takes a chill pill and bit of a pay cut he could be an asset to every team.
If asked for a Super Dom and 1 million Euro who wouldn't love to have him? He could target TT dominated stage races maybe win 1 and podium 2 more, and the Tour de France for top 5 or better depedning the route and his luck, and even ride Roubaix each season. To win, the super dom would need to be fairly super though, probably at least top 15 diesel style climber willing to give up their own chances.

Personally I don't think Tinkoff would be a bad fit. If Kreuziger is riding for Contador anyway, just sit in.

 

[nevada]

What?

Are you serious?

froome was doing domestique duties for Wiggins even when he was in the red jersey.

Only when Wiggins was pushed out of gc contention on Angliru with 1 gc stage left, did the managment, with Wiggins consent, since he couldn't win the race anymore, allow Froome to go up the road.

Froome was as loyal in 2011 Vuelta as anyone could possibly be.

And remember the tdf when the whole team was told to wait when he broke his collar bone.

 

[Richeypen]

And remember the tdf when the whole team was told to wait when he broke his collar bone.

I dont get it. Their only other GC rider was Uran who was held up b the same crash

 

[nevada]

I dont get it. Their only other GC rider was Uran who was held up b the same crash

My mistake.

 

[IndianCyclist]

What all the shenanigans boils down to is that both Wiggins & Froome think that the TDF is the only race in the calender. A little change in perspective would have help both but now it is too late

 

[Captain Sensible]

Hindsight is always easy after the events ,but he should have left Sky when they got rid of Sean Yates.
I hope he leaves Sky and goes to a team that is focused on the classics rather then the Tour ,Giro etc .

 

[Swifty's Cakes]

Hindsight is always easy after the events ,but he should have left Sky when they got rid of Sean Yates.
I hope he leaves Sky and goes to a team that is focused on the classics rather then the Tour ,Giro etc .

I was thinking along similar lines yesterday. From Sky's perspective why keep Wiggins on a

 

[Wiggo Warrior]

I feel Skys biggest misunderstanding here is that cycling fans tend to support riders not teams. My fav riders on Sky are Wiggins, Thomas and EBH (and Stanard) and I will support them wherever they go next year. A lot of British fans will only know of Team Sky because of Wiggins, you wont get people booing Froome on the road but it will be interesting to see the general support for Sky after the Tour. Wiggins seams to be a brand to himself in the UK just like Beckham was (not as extreme though). If Froome were to win the Tour and Wiggins announced he were leaving Sky it would be hard to see which would take priority in the press.

I have supported Sky because of some of the riders on their roster not because of some blind nationalistic trait drawing me to a specific team. Once those riders have left the team I couldn't give a **** about Sky, it will be interesting to see the UK public enthusiasm for Sky if their Olympic 'Heroes ' leave the team next year.

If Wiggins is Beckham in the press then Froome has the undeniable stench of Graham Taylor

10:00pm news on the BBC last night had it as a main news feature, not sport, with Olympics TT retrospective piece, including the podium photo which Brad was then faded out from, an interview with Gary Verity about how disappointed he was and a solemn anchor pacing up Pall Mall. The BBC is in mourning mode.

On the other hand the Commonwealth Games will be huge.

I know cycling fans tend to follow riders, I do tend to myself even though I haven't been a fan as long as most but many in the UK did support the team as well. If Wiggins leaves it will hurt Sky's following as many of the new fans were, like me, Wiggins fans first from his track Olympics days.

 

[JRanton]

I was thinking along similar lines yesterday. From Sky's perspective why keep Wiggins on a

What choice did Sky have though? He had a contract for 2014 so they had to honour it. I read some talk that they tried to 'politely' usher him out of the door at the end of last year but no other team would have matched his 2014 salary.

 

[JRanton]

Matt Slater ‏@mattslaterbbc

Couple of thoughts on Wiggo, he's back in velodrome/heavier than at Cali, so has little chance of GC success at Suisse, all on TT..

From a BBC journo.

 

[William H]

Why was Froome not allowed to compete in 2012?

Because Wiggins proved himself a superior rider throughout the year, and gained a dominant position in the road.

Any "deal" was extorted by Froome via being a treacherous ******* and is hardly binding

 

[Richeypen]

What all the shenanigans boils down to is that both Wiggins & Froome think that the TDF is the only race in the calender. A little change in perspective would have help both but now it is too late

LOL, Wiggins may be lots of things but solely focused on le Tour is not one of them. I was going to go into more detail but your post is so far off I am guessing you are trolling

 

[JRanton]

Because Wiggins proved himself a superior rider throughout the year, and gained a dominant position in the road.

Any "deal" was extorted by Froome via being a treacherous ******* and is hardly binding

One of the biggest problems for Froome in 2012 is that he was invisible until the Dauphine. I remember in Romandie there were stages when he was coming in with the grupetto. Meanwhile Wiggins had the perfect build up, the route suited him perfectly and there was no Contador on the start line. How could Froome be miffed in the circumstances that he wasn't allowed to compete for the win on the road?

I know there's still debate about how Sky messed up in the 2011 Vuelta but again I think that's with the benefit of hindsight. Froome only made the Vuelta line-up as a late replacement for Lars Peter-Nordhaug. How could anyone have predicted that Froome would maintain his level throughout the entire Vuelta? Again, Wiggins was coming off a pretty good season with a Dauphine win, Paris-Nice podium and also with the 2009 Tour 4th place in the bank.

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

One of the biggest problems for Froome in 2012 is that he was invisible until the Dauphine. I remember in Romandie there were stages when he was coming in with the grupetto. Meanwhile Wiggins had the perfect build up, the route suited him perfectly and there was no Contador on the start line. How could Froome be miffed in the circumstances that he wasn't allowed to compete for the win on the road?

I know there's still debate about how Sky messed up in the 2011 Vuelta but again I think that's with the benefit of hindsight. Froome only made the Vuelta line-up as a late replacement for Lars Peter-Nordhaug. How could anyone have predicted that Froome would maintain his level throughout the entire Vuelta? Again, Wiggins was coming off a pretty good season with a Dauphine win, Paris-Nice podium and also with the 2009 Tour 3rd place in the bank.

I know you were correct for the time you're talking about, but lets not do Lince any favours...

 

[William H]

It was a tough choice, but after beating Wiggins in the TT and going into the lead of the race they could have shown Froome a bit more faith. Though Sky don't seem to do "flexible" very well - one reason they suck at classics

 

[roundabout]

One of the biggest problems for Froome in 2012 is that he was invisible until the Dauphine. I remember in Romandie there were stages when he was coming in with the grupetto. Meanwhile Wiggins had the perfect build up, the route suited him perfectly and there was no Contador on the start line. How could Froome be miffed in the circumstances that he wasn't allowed to compete for the win on the road?

I know there's still debate about how Sky messed up in the 2011 Vuelta but again I think that's with the benefit of hindsight. Froome only made the Vuelta line-up as a late replacement for Lars Peter-Nordhaug. How could anyone have predicted that Froome would maintain his level throughout the entire Vuelta? Again, Wiggins was coming off a pretty good season with a Dauphine win, Paris-Nice podium and also with the 2009 Tour 4th place in the bank.

Froome was invisible in 2011 and was better than Wiggins post collarbone break in the Vuelta.

 

[JRanton]

Froome was invisible in 2011 and was better than Wiggins post collarbone break in the Vuelta.

And what did he do before the Dauphine in 2012 to assure Sky that his Vuelta performance wasn't a one-off? At the same time Wiggins had obviously improved on his 2011 'numbers'.