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Wiggo admits that 4th place was a fluke?

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Jul 5, 2009
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Let's be honest about Wiggins.

He is highly over rated and always has been. Not just by the British cycling press and fans, but also by himself.

Personally I couldn't continue my subscription to the British Cycle Sport magazine. The constant hype and interviews and reviews of the Sky team was too much to bear. Did the Sky team bus really have built-in complimentary ball sack massagers? How wonderful for them, cycle sport. Maybe now you can consider reporting on other teams after this Sky-high failure? All the damnable Wiggins photo shoots, five page interviews with that ugly mug, the pretentious hair style, and all the rock star hoopla one could muster. I genuinely think he believed his own bull**** as he swaggered away from his legal contract at Garmin, to "move from Wigan to Man Utd". Please.

It's interesting how quiet he has gone on his Twitter account. Was it only a few months ago he would release his weekly barbed comment, criticising someone or something with all that rock star attitude? Thinking he was cycling's Liam Gallagher? Sh*tting on "that guy from America", then quickly pretending he hadn't (just like a lightweight little pussy) once he'd been called out on it? He really thought he was something back then, huh.

So now I guess we won't see him rocking up to all those press conferences, swaggering about, wearing his ridiculous velvet jacket and the mod-like cravats, carrying on as if he was ever a rock star in a million years. Just look at this swaggering multi-million dollar rock star, thinking he's such hot ****:

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What a complete waste of money tool he's been. What hype. The only thing bending over his bike these days is his ego, rather than his rock star poses. It's an ego bending over and being given a bloody good seeing-to right up the proverbial poo pipe. It really is difficult not to feel some 'schadenfraude' at seeing him forced into humility (reality).

I'll never forget one particular moment I witnessed in a later race in 2009, how he fobbed people off like he was some kind of elite cycling rock star God in his own lunch hour, back when he was still riding the hype. Pushing through the punters as if his **** didn't stink and everyone was just wasting his time.

What a tool. Yes he did fluke 2009. He is over rated and over paid and the chickens are now coming home to roost. Let's not delude ourselves.
 
ingsve said:
So are you implying that "good sprinter" only includes the top 5 sprinters in the world or something?

Pretty much yes. The main "insurance policy" was EBH, who, to be fair, has been a little unlucky this season. But I really think they have made a mistake by not signing even a reliable 8-10 wins a season guy to keep the results coming through all season long.
 
May 26, 2010
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Bailey said:
Let's be honest about Wiggins.

.It really is difficult not to feel some 'schadenfraude' at seeing him forced into humility (reality).

Harsh! at least he has been humble and honest about his performance, more than many.

As for his pay, maybe he is on a performance related pay scheme and it is not as big as people perceive. He is not in the stratosphere of footballers and at least he suffers for his wage.

I don't think last years TdF was a fluke. Many things conspired in his favour, form, type of route, etc...this year is a very hard route. Look at others who performed well last year and where they are this year. Not only Wiggin's.
 
Jun 2, 2010
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Sky were after publicity in the English and Italian markets, with all the press coverage in the UK and winning the prologue in the Giro, pretty confident Sky have got a decent return. Any result in the TDF, would be a bonus. Then there's the Olympics in 2012, so I'm sure they will get there money's worth out of Mr Wiggins
 
May 3, 2010
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Signor Corleone

Let's get it straight, Wiggins was not, is not, will not, be a Tour winner.
Last year was, in my opinion, a 2 week Tour. He rode a good prologue, hung in there
the first week, had a rest, with all the other contender's, during the 2nd week,
when the G.C. hardly altered,till the Verbier stage.
He doesn't look like a tour winner, riding with what looks like his grandads long socks on,
halfway up his legs! Only Christophe Moreau can carry that one off.
Now I see Sky,have allegedly, told Geraint Thomas,that he'll be able to win Grand Tours as
well!! Talk about unwanted pressure.
 
Jul 27, 2009
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Bailey said:
Let's be honest about Wiggins.

He is highly over rated and always has been. Not just by the British cycling press and fans, but also by himself ......

<snip>

..... What a tool. Yes he did fluke 2009. He is over rated and over paid and the chickens are now coming home to roost. Let's not delude ourselves.

You hit the nail on the head. Well done.
 
Feb 12, 2010
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Signor Corleone said:
Now I see Sky,have allegedly, told Geraint Thomas,that he'll be able to win Grand Tours as
well!! Talk about unwanted pressure.

Can you give me the link to that please? All I have seen and heard is that he is a great bike rider (which he is) who has either the potential to be a classics rider (which they think will be his best plan) or a GC rider but he will need to improve his riding.
 
theyoungest said:
Also, Sky need to change their kits. It somehow looks ridiculous when Wiggins gets dropped of the back, barely able to breathe and getting cooked in his fluorescent space age superkit.
I love the front of their jersey, but why oh why is the back so ugly? :(
 
May 26, 2010
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Signor Corleone said:
Let's get it straight, Wiggins was not, is not, will not, be a Tour winner.
Last year was, in my opinion, a 2 week Tour. He rode a good prologue, hung in there
the first week, had a rest, with all the other contender's, during the 2nd week,
when the G.C. hardly altered,till the Verbier stage.
He doesn't look like a tour winner, riding with what looks like his grandads long socks on,
halfway up his legs! Only Christophe Moreau can carry that one off.
Now I see Sky,have allegedly, told Geraint Thomas,that he'll be able to win Grand Tours as
well!! Talk about unwanted pressure.

It is very easy to discard criticism from posters when it goes on about a riders socks.

Wiggin's could win a TdF, but he needs to be at the top of his form, have the right route, a lot of luck and other GC contenders not on their game. Lots of guys have 1 won the tour once and never again scaled that height. No reason for Wiggin's not to do that.
 
Benotti69 said:
Harsh! at least he has been humble and honest about his performance, more than many.

As for his pay, maybe he is on a performance related pay scheme and it is not as big as people perceive. He is not in the stratosphere of footballers and at least he suffers for his wage.

I don't think last years TdF was a fluke. Many things conspired in his favour, form, type of route, etc...this year is a very hard route. Look at others who performed well last year and where they are this year. Not only Wiggin's.

+ 1000000

Living in the UK, i refuse to critiscise the wage of a cyclist who gets £900 000 a year and has to suffer badly for these reuslts, when players in the english 2nd league get 7 figure salaries, and far more narcasistic, badly behaved and hero worshiped sports persoanlities in this country clock wiggos salary in about 3 weeks.
 
May 26, 2010
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The Hitch said:
Living in the UK, i refuse to critiscise the wage of a cyclist who gets £900 000 a year and has to suffer badly for these reuslts, when players in the english 2nd league get 7 figure salaries, and far more narcasistic, badly behaved and hero worshiped sports persoanlities in this country clock wiggos salary in about 3 weeks.

yeah, ya dont here too many footballers, say they were f**cked, not going well etc....we always here "didn't get the rub of the green" or some such excuse!

Wiggo has been pretty honest. His Fashion well, that's his business what he does with his money. He's 30, not a 19 year old barely shaving on millions. He's been turning pedals for a long time, he's won gold medals for his country and not made much money from that. i don't have a problem with his earnings. Probably paying half of it in tax. UK should be grateful to him for that alone. He is helping putting cycling back on the map. Rather see kids on a bike than spending loads on football shirts with some idiots name on the back of it.
 
Benotti69 said:
It is very easy to discard criticism from posters when it goes on about a riders socks.

Wiggin's could win a TdF, but he needs to be at the top of his form, have the right route, a lot of luck and other GC contenders not on their game. Lots of guys have 1 won the tour once and never again scaled that height. No reason for Wiggin's not to do that.

In other words, he can't win a TdF. There is a difference between consistently being in the top ten, progressing to the top being in the top 5, making the podium in addition to making the podium in other grand tours, finally winning one (all Sastre) and finishing in the top 5 once in your career. Wiggins thus far has one good showing in the Tour followed by an epic failure in the next after boasting of competing with Contador and the rest in 2010. If everyone else in the Tour's current top ten were to suddenly decide that they weren't doing the Tour in 2011, then Wiggins would have a chance, provided there is a long ITT and a TTT included. As I said when I began this post, "He can't win a TdF."
 
Jul 26, 2009
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Wiggins can't win and won't win. Over hyped and with too much to say for himself he can't expect to win the Tour by simply losing a few pounds and chasing mopeds simulating Contador's attacks uphill. I questioned his result last year in a race that was contrived to say the least and one or two posters suggested I was off the mark. I'm not gloating but I think his ride this year has found him asking in many departments and watching him slip off the back yesterday was as sure a sign as any that there isn't the necessary ability to stay with the fight when you haven't got LA throwing his weight and influence around. Maybe they could design a tour route that goes round and round in circles following a line on the ground and then Wiggins could win it!:
 
May 13, 2009
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simoni said:
Here in Britain, you have to understand that all average Joe knows of cycling is the Olympic track team and a vague awareness of Mark Cavendish. This means Brad Wiggins, Chris Hoy, Rebecca Romero, Victoria Pendleton. Sky HAD to have a big British name and Wiggins was the only one who fit the bill for a road team since Cav was not available. He knew this and took advantage and who could blame him - it was a signing more about publicity than sport. Given that he'd finished 4th last year they could market him as the great white GC hope even if they didn't necessarily believe it from a sporting point of view.

Elsewhere, there will be plenty of other riders earning above their station because of who they are - someone like McEwan springs to mind because people talk about him and he's media savvy. Similarly, Cunego will be on a huge wage because we think of him as the former giro winner and he appears on Italian TV whenever he gets dropped.

FWIW I think Sky have made things hard for themselves generally by not signing up a good sprinter and by their overly arrogant approach. Right from the start it has seemed more about style than substance (I suppose being sponsored by Sky we shouldn't be surprised...) but I suppose that's the publicity angle coming through again. As a cycling fan, I want to hear more about how they are knucking down and working to improve (but please don't talk marginal gains...) and less about the bus and the iPhones. New teams don't just march in and dominate and I hope we see a better sporting return for the money next year.

Fair enough. I don't know the situation in the UK and Cav wasn't going to leave HTC. Anyway, I think we agree that the amount of money spent on Wiggins was too much.