Wiggins Discussion Thread

[hatcher]

I think it's a bit much to blame the domestiques for this. Possoni did a monster pull for Sky in some stage (don't remember which), and I remember Cioni at the front too. Lofkvist was the one who bridged the peleton to Nibali and Kessiakoff when they attacked on that descent.

That's a good point. Lofkvist and Zandio were both there the one time Wiggins and Froome got distanced by other contenders. They were also both in contention on the descent prior to the Angliru, but sat up once Wiggins got back to the front.

 

[Captain_Cavman]

Froome was always down to ride for GC. Uran was supposed to do it with him, but they were wary of overracing him after his early season.

Lofkvist and Zandio weren't meant to be riding it at all. They got drafted in when the focus changed to Wiggins. Lofkvist has had good days and bad days, while Zandio has been pretty anonymous, but who knows what domestique work he's been doing?

Not sure you could expect Cioni to be there on the last mountain with Wiggins and Froome. At this point in his career he's not among the best 30 climbers at the Vuelta.

Ah that makes more sense, (the Uran thing).

If Cioni can't be a factor on any stage at his age, there's not a whole lot of reason to employ him.

Imagine the TTT without Wiggins or Lofqvist. Or indeed Zandio who did eventually make it.

 

[ScottyMuser]

Yeah, we all waited with bated breath to see who would win the ENECO tour and thought it was so fair that he would get more points for doing so than the winner of Paris-Roubaix.

Suck it.

Question for you then, Damiano - if you think the UCI ratings are rubbish, and that sky benefitted for only certain races counting, what do you think of the CQ ranking ones? You know, the ones where Sky aren't just fighting for a top 3, but leading the ratings?

And which teams do you think have had a better all round season then Sky if you think top 3 is over-egging their success?

(and for the record, the TDU and ATOC shouldn't be counted as highly as others, I agree - but its not like Sky really scored most of their points in either race this year as you are arguing. And tghe 2 Canadian races are pretty awesome, and its gilbert for OPL who is hoovering points up there)

 

[spanky wanderlust]

Well Wiggins ego did cost Froome the Vuelta win in the end.

If Froome didn't have to work his *** off at the Manzaneda in the red jersey, he would have won the Vuelta. Simple as that

your post would make a whole lot more sense if you had pre-loaded it by voting for froome in the mid vuelta poll.

fact is, froome was on there and not one single person on here voted for him to win it.

not. one. single. vote.

the point is, looking back, yep, it's *easy* to see that froome was the obvious choice. but NOBODY on here thought then that he could win. and nobody at sky thought that either apparently.

oh, i'm sorry, maybe you had so much foresight that you knew he would be stabbed in the back by wiggo and the team and therefore would only come in a close second.

 

[Oreknan]

your post would make a whole lot more sense if you had pre-loaded it by voting for froome in the mid vuelta poll.

fact is, froome was on there and not one single person on here voted for him to win it.

not. one. single. vote.

the point is, looking back, yep, it's *easy* to see that froome was the obvious choice. but NOBODY on here thought then that he could win. and nobody at sky thought that either apparently.

oh, i'm sorry, maybe you had so much foresight that you knew he would be stabbed in the back by wiggo and the team and therefore would only come in a close second.

the poll was after he worked as a domestique, so that can be a reason for nobody vote a guy that was working even when he was the leader of the race. not easy to believe that froome can win the vuelta being a domestique of wiggins, not very surprising that he had 0 votes.

 

[spanky wanderlust]

the poll was after he worked as a domestique, so that can be a reason for nobody vote a guy that was working even when he was the leader of the race. not easy to believe that froome can win the vuelta being a domestique of wiggins, not very surprising that he had 0 votes.

i am well aware of why noone voted for him. because noone thought he could win. it is recorded there in internet forum stone. so dekker and moose et al can't pretend they thought otherwise.

 

[Oreknan]

i am well aware of why noone voted for him. because noone thought he could win. it is recorded there in internet forum stone. so dekker and moose et al can't pretend they thought otherwise.

you have only one vote in a poll like that, if you vote nibali you are not saying that wiggins have no chances.

say that froome had no chances for win the vuelta its simply ridiculous, obviusly nibali and wiggins were clear favourites in that point but Froome lost only 1 second with Wiggins in La Covatilla, was a good performance and imo he deserved to have a chance for defend the lead, at least not pull when nobody important was in front only for make the race hard for a guy that his strong point its TT

 

[Eyeballs Out]

How many kms did we see Cobo riding on the front for Menchov in this race ?

Lucky for him he rides for a team that can react to what is happening during a race

 

[Angliru]

Sky came into road cycling thinking they could repeat what they did in track cycling (domination in 2007-8). Well in their first year they weren't so good and they learnt - the one thing Sky do well is learn. Now, in their second year they are on top of the CQ rankings and they are threatening to be no.1 on the World Tour rankings.

That's a huge step forward. And maybe their methods might actually be game changing. This year they can get rid of the deadwood and bring in big names. There is talk of BMC, Radio Luxembourg and OPLQSDFF being superteams, but Sky is the team that will seriously contend ever single race next year.

While Froome has displayed immense talent at the Vuelta and Wiggins showed that his rebound from his Tour injury was positive as was his overall Vuelta performance, I'd still have to say that they still have to prove themselves at the Tour again. Many have ridden great Vuelta's only to go to the Tour and be unable to recreate the same magic. Henao is still unproven in the grand tours and I'm assuming that he and Uran are the other candidates you have in mind to represent Sky so to say they will seriously contend in every single race would be stretching their level of proven grand tour talent a bit thin. I just hope they don't neuter Henao aggressive inclinations too much because toning him down is bound to happen.

 

[Angliru]

Hell no one thought Cobo would win the Vuelta.

IIRC there was someone here who was taughting/talking up Cobo prior to and early in the Vuelta (Unfortunately it wasn't me!, I just can't recall who it was and I meant to ask them immediately after their posts what made them think that Cobo was the darkhorse of the event. Of course as the Vuelta progressed he was always there slowly rising in the gc. Now I can't recall if this poster picked him as the eventual winner but he/she seemed quite confident in Cobo as a threat.

 

[daveinzambia]

OK it is on the team sky web site and he is angling for that big 5 year deal so of course he is going to say positive things but think Froome's comments in below agree with what people have said on here. in the past he has got too excited when doing well and blown himself up. He has had climbing talent but not the mental side. Riding for / with Brad helped him a lot. got him to focus on riding a pace he could maintain

http://www.teamsky.com/article/0,27290,22762_7173201,00.html

 

[spanky wanderlust]

you have only one vote in a poll like that, if you vote nibali you are not saying that wiggins have no chances.

say that froome had no chances for win the vuelta its simply ridiculous, obviusly nibali and wiggins were clear favourites in that point but Froome lost only 1 second with Wiggins in La Covatilla, was a good performance and imo he deserved to have a chance for defend the lead, at least not pull when nobody important was in front only for make the race hard for a guy that his strong point its TT

terrific. then we are in agreement.

the decisions were made inside of the above bolded thinking. this turned out to be wrong at the end of the day. which is a bummer for froome and for sky.

there is not a dm out there that doesn't wish they could look 10 days into the future and base their decisions on that. but they can't.

if froome was so great, why didn't he just ride away, (tr)aitor gonzalez style? aitor never did live that down. even though the situation was the same. he was simply stronger than his supposed gc contender.

lemond had to betray the badger to win his first tour.

 

[ultimobici]

How many kms did we see Cobo riding on the front for Menchov in this race ?

Lucky for him he rides for a team that can react to what is happening during a race

Difference is Menchov was minutes down on the jersey from before the TT. Although he gained positions and rose to 5th overall he was still nearly 4 minutes down in Madrid, whereas Wiggins was just over a minute down after the Angliru.

Another factor that appears to be a problem with SKY's approach is that they seem to cling to a pre-determined plan longer.

 

[cineteq]

He's such a snob. Will this guy ever learn?

“You had to have the legs to be in that group today,” Wiggins said, who pipped Valverde to win a three-second bonus in the day’s lone sprint in the final hour of racing. “I see Levi and Tejay as the two most dangerous rivals. Levi is always dangerous. You can never discount him. And Tejay is a strong, young rider. Valverde is still close, but there were a lot of big names who were not there.”

http://velonews.competitor.com/2012...-race-wiggins-levi-tejay-left-standing_208165

 

[Froome19]

He's such a snob. Will this guy ever learn?


http://velonews.competitor.com/2012...-race-wiggins-levi-tejay-left-standing_208165

He evidently thinks that Valverde will lose too much time in the TT

 

[Froome19]

Haircut's stock's falling faster than the Dow Jones today.

Seriously, Sky put all their eggs in the basket of a guy who's 31 and has won what, ONE major race?

1) he's British and a GC rider, the public in britain wouldnt care if porte/uran won a stage in the tour, enough said. But i'll carry on.
2) He is one of the strongest riders in the peloton (see WC 2011 I could have watched time and time again, unbelievable)
3)when he has been in form challenging for a GC at a TT at the peak of his powers he has come top 5.
4) He won the Dauphine last year and came 3rd in paris-nice and he is about to win Paris-nice this year.
5)He is the best TT GC contenders their is (not talking about recovery etc) and this tour is suited to TT.
6)In terms of his personality he is unique, a truly intense character and if you want to take that as a bad thing then so be it
7) He is the only GC nowadays who rides Roubaix, and with that there is truly enough said.

 

[richtea]

Did Wiggins point out the 2 GC riders closest to him on GC as his closest rivals, and then point out Valverde could also be a threat? Poor show, get the lad some media training pronto.

 

[hatcher]

He's such a snob. Will this guy ever learn?


http://velonews.competitor.com/2012...-race-wiggins-levi-tejay-left-standing_208165

What on earth are you babbling about?

 

[will10]

He's such a snob. Will this guy ever learn?


http://velonews.competitor.com/2012...-race-wiggins-levi-tejay-left-standing_208165

Obvious troll is obvious.

Did you even watch the race today? Wiggins looked awesome, why wouldn't he come out of today's stage confident?

 

[cineteq]

Did you even watch the race today? Wiggins looked awesome, why wouldn't he come out of today's stage confident?

I did, and I'm not talking about his look obviously. He can be as confident as he wants, but dismissing riders with better experience, palmares and smarter than him could be deadly.

 

[uphillstruggle]

He evidently thinks that Valverde will lose too much time in the TT

Valverde is very good at uphill TT's and is much better on steep finishes than wiggo. He is the big threat if he's on form.

 

[will10]

I did, and I'm not talking about his look obviously. He can be as confident as he wants, but dismissing riders with better experience, palmares and smarter than him could be deadly.

Where exactly does he dismiss Valverde as a contender? Perhaps he thinks that the parcours is very indecisive and Eze will be the key now, I'd certainly agree with that. God forbid a rider has an opinion. Maybe he should've just given all 21 riders in that front group a namecheck...

 

[Froome19]

Valverde is very good at uphill TT's and is much better on steep finishes than wiggo. He is the big threat if he's on form.

You musn't have read the first stage thread where all the reasons as to why Valverde will fail on the last TT were detailed. Of course hes the big threat to Wiggins, but that doesnt have to be Wiggins oponion does it?

 

[Mambo95]

I did, and I'm not talking about his look obviously. He can be as confident as he wants, but dismissing riders with better experience, palmares and smarter than him could be deadly.

He may have better palmares but he got them all by cheating. Wiggins has probably won more clean than Valverde ever will.

 

[Kvinto]

I fail to see ANY wrong in his comments

It's hard to find a black cat in a dark room, especially if the cat is not there

Wiggo FTW