Wiggins Discussion thread.

[sublimit]

Wiggins was never on my wheelsucker list to begin with. He always takes up responsiblity when he has to. What he did yesterday was super impressive.

At first I saw his 4th place in the Tour 2009 as a fluke result. But it was already clear after Paris Nice and the Dauphine this year that it is not.

I'm tempted to put my foot in on the Wiggins appreciation thread but I think I'll be banned very quickly. The thread has been taken over by bitter anti-Wiggins retards lol. Happy in their sad and pathetic lives.

 

[spanky wanderlust]

Erm I think everyone did

No huge time gains on Fuglsang, Nibali etc but Scarponi and Rodriguez and obviously much less dangerous now. A lot will rest on the Angliru, we've not see Bradley tackle something like that. I think he's a genuine podium contender but Nibali should win from here.

agreed. i think nibali may have just won the race today.

we all know on a climb like angliru, anything can happen. anyone can have a bad day and crack, losing big chunks of time. given nibali's history i put my money on him to defend on the high steep ones, over bradley.

as much as i would like to see him win, brad is unproven. my personal opinion is that he is ready. that he will go deep, nibali-style, and defend against the little pixies.

like ls said, a podium looks very possible for brad from here. and he still might win outright.

 

[spanky wanderlust]

as someone above pointed out, this thread would have a whole lot more love if there were any pictures at all, anywhere, of brad raising his arms in victory in a grand tour stage on the road.

i like the guy this year. i am over his transfer saga bs--i don't call him wigans anymore.

he won the dauphine, which is a great leap and really should have shut up a lot of the haters. it certainly skyrocketed my respect for him.

when he blew out of the tour i became very curious how his form would hold up for spain. he was either going to be full on, or terrible. and it seems he is going really well.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

To be fair, where do we expect this GT stage arm-raising victory to come from? Wiggins has no sprint, so he was never going to take the win yesterday, for all his efforts. He has a GT stage victory, but you can't really cross the line raising your arms in an ITT unless you're Fabian Cancellara at the Worlds, or you've just secured the GT overall win. So in order to get a win like that, he's going to need to solo in somehow, which entails riding all the other contenders off his wheel. Yesterday was the first piece of evidence we've had to say that this is something he could definitely do.

Now, we just have to wait until he does it. Or until the Vuelta decides to make one of its infrequent trips into Portugal to put Torre on the route. Wiggins would love that climb. Interminable drag, his power would make things really, really hard for people there.

 

[Moose McKnuckles]

I'm not sure what exactly is special about Wiggins, except he's really the only Brit with a snowball's chance in hell to podium in a GT.

He's a very good TTer, no doubt. He's become a good climber as well, and he had an excellent day on Saturday.

However, people are talking about the guy as though he's some major GT champ. He's won ONE Dauphine and he's 31. Seriously, people.

I know he was the bee's knees in track and he rocked it in 2008, but his road palmares is largely non-existent.

 

[Pantani_lives]

I look forward to seeing Wiggins on the Angliru!

Would they have heard of the Vuelta in the UK? I suppose cricket and rugby league are more important?

 

[l.Harm]

Even the fifth league in football 10.000 people come to watch it

 

[Jamsque]

Wiggo sulk watch: as far as I can tell Brad didn't talk to the media or the Team Sky website after today's stage. He was his usual talkative self on Sunday so that at least hints that he was unhappy with his TT. He won't be able to dodge the media on the rest day so we'll see what he has to say.

 

[Mambo95]

Wiggo sulk watch: as far as I can tell Brad didn't talk to the media or the Team Sky website after today's stage. He was his usual talkative self on Sunday so that at least hints that he was unhappy with his TT. He won't be able to dodge the media on the rest day so we'll see what he has to say.

He put this on twitter: Not my best TT of the year but after the events of the last 7 weeks got to be happy. Chris Froome was amazing and deserves all he gets.

 

[ultimobici]

Armstrong basically beat Wiggins up including track stands - something I've not seen in a road race since -

What race is this you speak of? There were no track stands in the 2009 Tour that I remember. Wiggins did lose time to Armstrong on the last climb but it was barely a minute.

 

[Captain_Cavman]

What race is this you speak of? There were no track stands in the 2009 Tour that I remember. Wiggins did lose time to Armstrong on the last climb but it was barely a minute.

Watch the highlights. Armstrong and Nibali dog Wiggins, then Armstrong attacks, Wiggins follows and Armstrong comes to a standstill until Wiggins takes the lead again. Process is repeated until Wiggins can't respond.

The bulk of the time Wiggins lost to Armstrong and Nibali was on the descent unsurprisingly.

But my point was about the three minute time difference between three riders co-operating at the front versus one rider getting beaten up.

 

[Winterfold]

Wiggo sulk watch: as far as I can tell Brad didn't talk to the media or the Team Sky website after today's stage. He was his usual talkative self on Sunday so that at least hints that he was unhappy with his TT. He won't be able to dodge the media on the rest day so we'll see what he has to say.

Yeah I reckon he's going to be more than a bit hacked off with that result.

He would have expected to be much closer to Martin.

Combine that (40-50s?) with the TTT fiasco, and possibly the seconds from the Leakygas downhill ambush, and there is a lot of time lost to Nibali where he would not expect to lose it.

If he was Dauphine match-fit/race-sharp that is.

 

[hatcher]

Wiggo sulk watch: as far as I can tell Brad didn't talk to the media or the Team Sky website after today's stage. He was his usual talkative self on Sunday so that at least hints that he was unhappy with his TT. He won't be able to dodge the media on the rest day so we'll see what he has to say.

Or that he (and/or Sky) felt Chris Froome, the new leader of the Vuelta, deserved pride of place on the Team Sky website report. Good grief.

 

[MartinGT]

I went to the Netherlands last year to watch the Giro. Wiggins came accross as a bit of an @rse. The rest of the guys were spot on though.

BUT

Having watched interviews etc with him and also seeing him at the British Nationals, I get the feeling he is just a shy lad who is a little embarrassed at some of the attention.

This season Ive really enjoyed watching him, especially the TT in the Dauphine, poetry in motion.

He has silenced me a couple of times this season with his climbing though. I think it was bad positioning that cost him a broken collarbone in the Tour, I was gutted to see him out.

 

[King Of The Wolds]

I know he was the bee's knees in track and he rocked it in 2008, but his road palmares is largely non-existent.

4th in the Tour, won the Dauphine, 3rd in P-N, a stage in the Giro. And now an impressive showing, so far, in La Vuelta. Not exactly non-existent.

I do agree though that he has nothing on his palmares that guarantees us that he'll last the distance and challenge in this race. I wouldn't be surprised to see him on the podium, but, at the same time, I wouldn't be surprised to see him lose a packet on the really tough stuff coming up. I'm pretty sure he won't know either, right now.

Nibali aside though, can we guarantee that any of the major contenders are going to be up there at the end? They've all either lost time already or are in unchartered territory.

 

[ParfaitAmour]

Us Wiggins fans have learned to lay low.

Yep, sad but true.

He's working and trying hard. And this has a knock on effect of bringing more UK interest to the sport.

 

[Angliru]

What race is this you speak of? There were no track stands in the 2009 Tour that I remember. Wiggins did lose time to Armstrong on the last climb but it was barely a minute.

It was very, very brief, where Armstrong came to almost a complete stop on a climb with Wiggins in tow and then accelerated. 2009 Tour I believe one of the Gran Bornand (le Petit maybe) stages. They had already been dropped by Contador and AS at this point.

 

[simoni]

I look forward to seeing Wiggins on the Angliru!

Would they have heard of the Vuelta in the UK? I suppose cricket and rugby league are more important?

Regrettably so. But a big step forward has been taken this year with ITV4 showing the Vuelta live and evening highlights. Minimal coverage in the national press however (until he wins perhaps).

As far as the mainstream media go cycling takes place in France in July and on a track every 4 years.

Anyway, I think it's a shame that Wiggins doesn't get the credit he deserves. All the evidence we see this year suggests now that he would have been a contender at the tour (which many felt he wouldn't, myself included) and he's generally come up with the goods in every race where hes been interested in doing so. That implies an athlete who's increasingly in tune with his body and the demands of the events he's targetting. I hope he goes for the TdF next year. I think he might be ready for something very special by then.

Another thing - my impression of Wiggins is that he'd happily work for Froome if the team asked him to. It'll be interesting to see how Sky play this - Froome's contract for next year might be a key part in that decision.

 

[MartinGT]

I look forward to seeing Wiggins on the Angliru!

Would they have heard of the Vuelta in the UK? I suppose cricket and rugby league are more important?

RL is very important yes

What is annoying, a lot of people are coming into the sport but the only real race that gets decent coverage is the Tour. The coverage of the Vuelta has been shocking!

So, thats why I have Eurosport. If you want to know about cycling out of July we have the means to find out the information today so its not like were in the 80s!

 

[Nielsa]

How is the British media treating the fact that Froome is in red? You'd think Sky sports would be all over this? What about the papers?

 

[ParfaitAmour]

How is the British media treating the fact that Froome is in red? You'd think Sky sports would be all over this? What about the papers?

I have Sky news on in the background while I work, and there has not been a mention of the Vuelta or Froome/Wig today.

 

[MartinGT]

How is the British media treating the fact that Froome is in red? You'd think Sky sports would be all over this? What about the papers?

They dont know about cycling other than in July

YET

The BBC show bloody ski sunday during the season. WHY? Do we have any top class ski/boarders?

 

[jobiwan]

It was very, very brief, where Armstrong came to almost a complete stop on a climb with Wiggins in tow and then accelerated. 2009 Tour I believe one of the Gran Bornand (le Petit maybe) stages. They had already been dropped by Contador and AS at this point.

If I remember correctly that was on the Col de Romme (correct stage). Frank attacked while Lance and Wiggins were standing still essentially. And of course Frank went all the way to the front, while Lance didn't drop Wiggo near the top of the Colombiere I think.

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

They dont know about cycling other than in July

YET

The BBC show bloody ski sunday during the season. WHY? Do we have any top class ski/boarders?

The bbc have absolutely no interest in sport, other than those engaged in by the quango classes.

Watching sky-sunday is great revision for the average family's 2 annual skiing trips.

 

[MartinGT]

The bbc have absolutely no interest in sport, other than those engaged in by the quango classes.

Watching sky-sunday is great revision for the average family's 2 annual skiing trips.

Ah, F1 you mean? Spending what, £300m on it?