a thought aboput wiggo

stefrees

just been having a good old think about the sport we love while at work today, and wiggo, while yes 4th may have been seen as an overachievement, was still with the elite group-minus sastre, evans etc-on ventoux until 1km to go.l i think this is just as important as him finishing 4th. thoughts?

intothe12

no doubt wiggo's performance was top notch, but altough i think he is funny as f*ck on twitter etc... it is sometimes difficult to like the guy...its like he makes a point of trying not to be liked IMO, anyway, still very funny and dry witted guy.

SpaceJunk

stefrees wrote:

just been having a good old think about the sport we love while at work today, and wiggo, while yes 4th may have been seen as an overachievement, was still with the elite group-minus sastre, evans etc-on ventoux until 1km to go.l i think this is just as important as him finishing 4th. thoughts?

but to be honest, the 'elite group' weren't exactly flying up ventoux either; headwind make attacks pointless.

The fact that eventual stage winner Juan Manuel Garate and Tony Martin (who had been in a breakaway all day), were able to comfortably hold onto their 3′24 lead on the GC favourites group over the last 16 kms of climbing is testament to this.

So sure, he held on, got fourth, but I was probably more impressed with his ride to Verbier.

dave_1

Wiggins was right up the front at Verbier...not hanging off the back much...if he can reproduce that form surely he need not fear the 2010 TDF route?

avoidingmyphd

Dave_1 wrote:

Wiggins was right up the front at Verbier...not hanging off the back much...if he can reproduce that form surely he need not fear the 2010 TDF route?

+1 - he even tried an attack, unfortunately it was only partially captured by the tv IIRC,
People are slating his climbing ability and doubting his prospects for next year, but his performances on Verbier and Ventoux taken together are very encouraging: he mixed it up when the attacks were going on Verbier, and he stayed with the GC group on Ventoux. In other words, on the two decisive mtn top finishes of this year's tour, he did exactly what he had to do.

nick hanson

SpaceJunk wrote:

stefrees wrote:

just been having a good old think about the sport we love while at work today, and wiggo, while yes 4th may have been seen as an overachievement, was still with the elite group-minus sastre, evans etc-on ventoux until 1km to go.l i think this is just as important as him finishing 4th. thoughts?

but to be honest, the 'elite group' weren't exactly flying up ventoux either; headwind make attacks pointless.

The fact that eventual stage winner Juan Manuel Garate and Tony Martin (who had been in a breakaway all day), were able to comfortably hold onto their 3′24 lead on the GC favourites group over the last 16 kms of climbing is testament to this.

So sure, he held on, got fourth, but I was probably more impressed with his ride to Verbier.

Headwind??,It was a roaring tailwind as the barriers started (@1.5km to go,I was there) & the lead riders were doing in excess of 40 kph in places .
Well,this is what L'Equipe stated in the next days round up
Think Equipe also stated they (the yellow jersey group) did the climb in 58 mins

moray_gub

avoidingmyphd wrote:

Dave_1 wrote:

Wiggins was right up the front at Verbier...not hanging off the back much...if he can reproduce that form surely he need not fear the 2010 TDF route?

+1 - he even tried an attack, unfortunately it was only partially captured by the tv IIRC,
People are slating his climbing ability and doubting his prospects for next year, but his performances on Verbier and Ventoux taken together are very encouraging: he mixed it up when the attacks were going on Verbier, and he stayed with the GC group on Ventoux. In other words, on the two decisive mtn top finishes of this year's tour, he did exactly what he had to do.

But he didnt do what he had to do on the Columbiere stage and he lost time to Armstrong which cost him his podium place.

SpaceJunk

nick hanson wrote:

SpaceJunk wrote:

stefrees wrote:

just been having a good old think about the sport we love while at work today, and wiggo, while yes 4th may have been seen as an overachievement, was still with the elite group-minus sastre, evans etc-on ventoux until 1km to go.l i think this is just as important as him finishing 4th. thoughts?

but to be honest, the 'elite group' weren't exactly flying up ventoux either; headwind make attacks pointless.

The fact that eventual stage winner Juan Manuel Garate and Tony Martin (who had been in a breakaway all day), were able to comfortably hold onto their 3′24 lead on the GC favourites group over the last 16 kms of climbing is testament to this.

So sure, he held on, got fourth, but I was probably more impressed with his ride to Verbier.

Headwind??,It was a roaring tailwind as the barriers started (@1.5km to go,I was there) & the lead riders were doing in excess of 40 kph in places .
Well,this is what L'Equipe stated in the next days round up
Think Equipe also stated they (the yellow jersey group) did the climb in 58 mins

My brother was 4-5 kms down the road. He said it was a strong headwind there (and his videotape backs this up).

CN's reports:

While the wind didn't blow as strongly as predicted, topping out with a 41 kilometre-per-hour Mistral headwind at the top, it did annul attacks to a degree, discouraging any changes of significance on the general classification. Still, within the top ten, Fränk Schleck and Andréas Klöden (Astana) swapped their fifth and sixth places; Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas) moved from 12th to 9th; and Christophe Le Mevel (Française des Jeux) dropped a spot to 10th.

Regardless, of which way the win was blowing; once Andy realised he couldn't help leapfrog Frank onto the podium, and that AC wasn't going to crack - it pretty much became a non-event.

nick hanson

The road switches direction quite a lot,& I'm not saying there were no headwind sections,but for the elite group to take less than an hour to climb the Ventoux,It aint hanging about,& wouldn't have achieved that in a block headwind