hats off to Wiggins

pictit

Wonderful display of 'courage' yesterday and a great overall tour for him.

mgcycleguy

pictit wrote:

Wonderful display of 'courage' yesterday and a great overall tour for him.

+1... great example, those last 5ks where some of the most impressive bits of sporting guts I've ever seen...

richa

Apparently wearing a skin suit today. Going for a stage win? Or leadout man?

mgcycleguy

RichA wrote:

Apparently wearing a skin suit today. Going for a stage win? Or leadout man?

... or he's run out of clean kit after 3 weeks

DaveyL

Wouldn't be surprised f he (or Millar or Z) took a wee flyer off the front in the last few km. It would really noise Columbia up a bit...

donaldinho

Chapeau! 8)

richa

Maybe they are planning a rival leadout train?

richa

Millar also in skinsuit. Reckon that Garmin are planning something.

Keith Oates

They could be geraing up to get Farrar (sp) ahead of Cav in the sprint finish!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AO1504

Garmin riders have worn skinsuits or "aero jerseys" on a number of stages during the TdF this year.

top_bhoy

Good ride to hang on in there and great effort to finish 4th in GC but I don't think he can do any better in future tours. He looks to be a bit like Cadel Evans and hangs on in there but lacks that blistering acceleration in the mountains to get away from his rivals and open up sizeable time gaps. Maybe his TT will improve and compensate but his 4th place is the big surprise of thei Year for sure. Time will tell if he can get stronger and develop that acceleration but most natural climbers have that as born talent.

slunker

Shame he's a c*nt

stefrees

how good would it have been if wiggins had done all this while wearing the british champions jersey?

mididoctors

it was not a fast food ride that for wiggo that.. his position on GC was systematically attacked by the two strongest teams in the tour..

and it showed in that his 3rd position was blown out by the pressure.. amazing he didn't crack completely (which must have worried him on the ventoux)

ok he was lucky the ventoux was somewhat neutralized by tactical marking/wind and what not but top ten was never out of reach in hindsight..

I didn't think he had 3 weeks in him.

I hope he follows through on the passport publishing claim

top shelf... inspirational

BUT how much can he really improve?

podium maybe just... but that might be his best tour

GeorgeShaw

The plus side is that he will learn from this Tour - you can tell from some of his comments that he's been put in positions that are new to him, and he's still working it out. First time to be competitive for all 3 weeks as well.

The minus side is that this year's route has suited him, with too few big mountain stages, and those that were included were often only single major climbs. The one time he really suffered was the multiple mountain stage to Grand Bornand.

So I think that his chances will depend as much on the route over the next few years as anything else.

But chapeau for a great effort, I think most people would have bitten their arm off for a top ten 3 weeks ago, so top 4 is a major achievement.

dilemna

Formidable, super, enfin un grand courreur.

But 4th might be his best result on TdF as he will never beat Contador, A Schleck or Armstrong (even when Lance has got his zimmer frame).

RichN95.

GeorgeShaw wrote:

The minus side is that this year's route has suited him, with too few big mountain stages, and those that were included were often only single major climbs. The one time he really suffered was the multiple mountain stage to Grand Bornand.

But the route also didn't suit him - only 56km of individual time trialling - the least ever by some margin, there's usually twice that much.

GeorgeShaw

RichN95 wrote:

GeorgeShaw wrote:

The minus side is that this year's route has suited him, with too few big mountain stages, and those that were included were often only single major climbs. The one time he really suffered was the multiple mountain stage to Grand Bornand.

But the route also didn't suit him - only 56km of individual time trialling - the least ever by some margin, there's usually twice that much.

True, I'd forgotten about that, but he did have the TTT where Garmin did well.

ms_tree

GeorgeShaw wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

GeorgeShaw wrote:

The minus side is that this year's route has suited him, with too few big mountain stages, and those that were included were often only single major climbs. The one time he really suffered was the multiple mountain stage to Grand Bornand.

But the route also didn't suit him - only 56km of individual time trialling - the least ever by some margin, there's usually twice that much.

True, I'd forgotten about that, but he did have the TTT where Garmin did well.

Would he have been up there without the TTT? Would TheTwit? However, well done! Even I was shouting him on!

iainf72

Without TTT and the 41 seconds from that handy split the top would've looked like this

AC
AS 3:31
FS 5:26
BW 5:44
LA 6:05
VN 6:37
AK 6:42

-ish.

MatthewBulmer

I've just come back from France having followed The Tour in The Alps. Wiggins was class - simple as that. Never thought I'd see a British guy go over the Col de Romme in 5th place on the road and 3rd in the CG (at that point.) His ride on the Ventoux was inspiring.

As to whether he can go better, let's see what he says. If you go back 3 weeks on this forum you would probably find loads of posters laughing at his contention that he was going to finish top 15.