Wiggins Interview

iainf72
iainf72 Posts: 15,784
edited December 2008 in Pro race
For all you fans out there. It's probably more interesting than his book

http://www.cyclingnews.com/riders/2008/ ... gins_dec08

I'm still curious how if the peloton is getting slower and slower the TdF this year was the 4'th fastest ever....

But never mind.
Fckin' Quintana … that creep can roll, man.

Comments

  • DaveyL
    DaveyL Posts: 5,167
    Can't we talk about Lance instead?

    :wink:
    Le Blaireau (1)
  • Kléber
    Kléber Posts: 6,842
    He's not exactly kind towards all his past employers. The likes of Cofidis and Credit Agricole gave him a big break but he's happy to moan about them. I know what he is getting at but there are more subtle ways of saying it but then again he's a bike rider, not a politician or lawyer. Here's hoping he has a good year in 2009.
  • DaveyL
    DaveyL Posts: 5,167
    2003-2006 were all faster, so wouldn't that make 2008 the 5th fastest?
    Le Blaireau (1)
  • iainf72
    iainf72 Posts: 15,784
    DaveyL wrote:
    2003-2006 were all faster, so wouldn't that make 2008 the 5th fastest?

    Ok, 5'th fastest.

    :wink:

    You're such a square
    Fckin' Quintana … that creep can roll, man.
  • andyp
    andyp Posts: 10,549
    Mr Pot meet Mr Kettle. :wink:

    Wiggins looks like he's going to have a pretty full season, Qatar, the spring classics then the Giro and the Tour. Has he done a full season like that before?
  • stagehopper
    stagehopper Posts: 1,593
    Don't the speeds have as much to do with the change in tactics and the make up of the peleton? I'm not sure direct correlations can be made with years considered PEDier than others.

    For instance we're far less likely these days to see a lone/small breakaway take many minutes on the field and be allowed to succeed. This is the sort of thing that lowers average times with neither the breakaway riders nor the peloton needing to go flat out once the outcome has been "communicated" tens of kilometres from the finish.

    Because the financial risks/rewards are now much greater DSs know that every opportunity must be grabbed in the fight for the media spotlight so average speeds are higher at the start of races, in maintaining smaller gaps through the stage, and then in the gallop to close down the breakaway.

    It's a patronless peleton.
    @stagehopper
  • leguape
    leguape Posts: 986
    Didn't Millar come third on the TT Schumacher "won" and Kirchen came second at 12 seconds with Millar down by a matter of hundredths on him? So why has someone filled in "[Zabriskie]" in one of the quotations?

    That's a basic fact check they've managed to get wrong in that interview then. Worse for the fact they've introduced the error rather than it being there in the original quote.
    http://www.atomicecho.com/cycling
  • DaveyL
    DaveyL Posts: 5,167
    I doubt it. Millar's crap these days. Apparently... :D
    Le Blaireau (1)
  • finchy
    finchy Posts: 6,686
    iainf72 wrote:
    I'm still curious how if the peloton is getting slower and slower the TdF this year was the 4'th fastest ever....

    Less high mountains than usual, and the stages are getting shorter. No more "sado-masochism on a grand scale" as David Millar put it after and 8 hour stage in the early part of this decade.
  • teagar
    teagar Posts: 2,100
    Kléber wrote:
    He's not exactly kind towards all his past employers. The likes of Cofidis and Credit Agricole gave him a big break but he's happy to moan about them. I know what he is getting at but there are more subtle ways of saying it but then again he's a bike rider, not a politician or lawyer. Here's hoping he has a good year in 2009.


    I think he feels he was slightly shafted by Cofidis and Credit Agricole. I think he signed for Credit Agricole half drunk and then realised afterwards they were paying him an awful lot less than a world-champ should be paid.

    Then again, you can't blame a road team for not having much time for trackies... *runs and hides*
    Note: the above post is an opinion and not fact. It might be a lie.
  • dave_1
    dave_1 Posts: 9,512
    He's been a road pro 5 years. To be fair he did come 2nd in the long TT stage of 2007 TDF-the long TT the kazahk blood doper grabbed unfairly. Wiggins has not much of a road career and should go for the hour...he will struggle to win much in road racing and his talk of doping in pro cycling is partly to make out that is why he loses out or convince himself it's why...he a trackie and support man on the road
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKBacb2V ... ata_player
  • iainf72
    iainf72 Posts: 15,784
    Dave_1 wrote:
    Wiggins has not much of a road career and should go for the hour...

    Do you think he's got the attributes for the hour?

    Sadly, I don't think the hour means anything anymore. Has the guy who holds it been banned yet for his positive?
    Fckin' Quintana … that creep can roll, man.
  • dave_1
    dave_1 Posts: 9,512
    iainf72 wrote:
    Dave_1 wrote:
    Wiggins has not much of a road career and should go for the hour...

    Do you think he's got the attributes for the hour?

    Sadly, I don't think the hour means anything anymore. Has the guy who holds it been banned yet for his positive?

    I see pics of Lance testing on track...notice he posted a pic of Eddy Mercx on track doing the hour in 1972...and posted comment of "best cyclists ever" aside pic on twitter...I think LA would go for it...if you want to look for clean results and not EPO stained grand tours with ferrari trained riders in the early 90s...the hour is what to look at-Obree and Boardman...

    Wiggins has faster 4k times than Boardman had on same position
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKBacb2V ... ata_player
  • Kléber
    Kléber Posts: 6,842
    He goes on about how "on French teams everyone has to look the same – the same haircut and if you are different you are ostracised" but maybe he just didn't fit in. Not all his former team mates had Hushovd-style short back and sides, for example Lequatre makes Wiggins look unadventurous when it comes to haircuts and clothing.
  • afx237vi
    afx237vi Posts: 12,630
    Can he speak French? I imagine that's quite a big stumbling block.

    Surprised he's said that about Credit Agricole though. Roger Legeay has a long history of bringing over British and other non-French riders and giving them a helping hand to start their career.
  • skavanagh.bikeradar
    skavanagh.bikeradar Posts: 1,097
    I don't know. I like him, but he isn't a politician. Especially as he might end up in the British team under Legeay.

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