the end for Wiggo ?

Full Merckx

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/t ... 6664268858

JackPozzi

I suspect he may be off to another team soon, possibly one that uses campag after his recent opinions on shimano...

ddraver

meh, non story...

frenchfighter

I hope he bails then beats them in every race. Sky just churn and burn. Not the way to treat a guy such as Wiggins in a British team with that palmares.

Anyway, as usual, this is just someone's opinion, so not worth much.

Read more here as the website above is annoying.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/report- ... o-strength

Crankbrother

I hope this is the end for Wiggins ...

FF thinks he should get more respect but I wholly disagree ... Achieved nothing other than school sports gold medals until Garmin gave him a chance and back-up ...

He then moved to,SKY for the money (no argument there) and eventually became the big fish in a small pond (although Cavendish challenged that success with results and then moved on) ... Turns out when other fish fancy a nibble Wiggins isn't up to the scrap ...

He received a premature honour on the wave of corporate olympic gladhanding schisterism ... I'd go on record that Jimmy Saville deserved his knighthood more ...

Wiggins=finished, mind and body ...

fast as fupp

yeah! and all those olympic medals were made out of chocolate!

you sure got an apt name brother crank.

Crankbrother

fast as fupp wrote:

yeah! and all those olympic medals were made out of chocolate!

you sure got an apt name brother crank.

I'd love to agree, but you're signature sums it up ... maybe if there was overcrowding at mansfield town you'd be allowed that chip on your shoulder ...

Doughball!

fast as fupp

you stick with your jimmy savile fantasies, weapon

Pross

Where will he end up? Can only think of OGE or BMC unless Vaughters was feeling forgiving. Wherever he does end up you can bet he'll get that desire back whenever he is up against Froome. He'll be short of support wherever he goes though.

tailwindhome

Unless the 2014 Tour is very TT heavy, Wiggins is done as a GT contender.

Pross

I still don't get that argument, he lost nothing more than a handful of seconds to any rival last year (and that was when the race was won as long as he finished). He hasn't done much this year and his main target was ruined by crashes, injury and illness. That's why I think the motivation of taking on Froome can bring the best out of him once more providing he can get a good team around him. He'll have to take a big pay cut though.

TheBigBean

Won't he just be in the pub for the next decade?

petemadoc

TheBigBean wrote:

Won't he just be in the pub for the next decade?

Most likely

Sky are being properly cold about this. Wiggins is the current TDF winner and should be starting this year in the yellow jersey. He seems to have basically been pushed out by Froome and lost motivation. In some ways I think it's a poor attitude from Wiggins, maybe he should have ridden this years tour in support of Froome, but then I get this feeling that Sky and Froome have been a bit cuntish about the whole thing.

Struggling to get excited about the tour this year, expecting a snooze fest. I'd love to see Stannard or G shine but I can see them now, pressing the radio to their ears and dropping back.

blazing_saddles

I don't see that he's been pushed out by Sky.
He declared for the Giro, with a suck it and see approach to the Tour.
Sky went with it and made Froome Tour leader, with Wiggins as suck it and see second leader.
Then he decided before the Giro, that he wanted the Tour, got injured and managed neither.
Now, he's made it clear that he doesn't want the Vuelta mountains.
What are Sky supposed to do?

Anyhow, there are bits of the ST story on CN:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/report- ... o-strength
The bottom line, maybe:

"Froome is a very manageable athlete, whereas Wiggins has been deciding this year which training camps he will or will not attend. Froome is also more consistent; Wiggins has up years and down years. And Froome's performances are flat lining at a very high level."

Crankbrother

"Wiggins can only dream of having more credibility than Lance has testicles"

ddraver

Has Wiggo been abusing Crankbrother like someone from BC has been that other bloke on the wiggle post?

rick_chasey

Crankbrother wrote:

"Wiggins now has less credibility than Lance has Tour de France titles"

Eh?

Wiggins definitely is mentally a bit extreme. It seems to take a lot of emotional energy to prepare for something sport wise, but when he does, 'cor blimey. That effort seems to be difficult to repeat for him and you can see it in the way he deals with various problems.

He also doesn't strike me as someone who has to be the #1 and go after all the stats. I think he genuinely relished seeing whether he could win the Tour, and he did. Where to go from here is tricky for him - he has mentioned struggling to get motivated for more olympic medals on the track - hence the move to the road.

It explains the tilt at the Giro too. It was something he felt, as a proper cycling fan, was something big riders did - win the Giro and the Tour. I also think the confusing chat before the Giro was his way of dealing with the fact he wasn't going as well as he had done - it was similar to the chat he had in 2010 when he was rubbish.

DeadCalm

I can see Wiggins riding the TDF for another team next year and in my best Kevin Keegan voice, I would love it if he beat Froome. Love it.

DeadCalm

Crankbrother wrote:

"Wiggins can only dream of having more credibility than Lance has testicles"

So which cretin said that? I'm assuming it is a quote since it is in quotation marks.

No_Ta_Doctor

Crankbrother wrote:

I hope this is the end for Wiggins ...

FF thinks he should get more respect but I wholly disagree ... Achieved nothing other than school sports gold medals until Garmin gave him a chance and back-up ...

He then moved to,SKY for the money (no argument there) and eventually became the big fish in a small pond (although Cavendish challenged that success with results and then moved on) ... Turns out when other fish fancy a nibble Wiggins isn't up to the scrap ...

He received a premature honour on the wave of corporate olympic gladhanding schisterism ... I'd go on record that Jimmy Saville deserved his knighthood more ...

Wiggins=finished, mind and body ...

Raise the level please, this is just aggressive and pointless trolling.

Richmond Racer

Can we cut back on the nasty comments about him being in the pub for the next 10 years. He went on his multi-month bender post-04 Olympics. 9 years ago and before he has a family. Decisions he's made when he's had to sort himself out like after his 2010 season, when he faced either serious demotion within the team or even the sack, have been made with his family's future and security right at forefront of his mind. Even decisions he's made about which training camps to be on this year, have been in the interests of his family - which is why he's trained more in Mallorca than Tenerife.

Personally I think Sky - or really Brailsford - and Wiggins may have reached point of no return. There seem to be more leaks coming out of the normally tight-lipped Sky camp than a roof with a heap of missing tiles. And these leaks have a theme of negative things re and for Wiggins. Can help but wonder if there's a bit of a campaign behind this.

I wouldn't be surprised if Wiggins doesn't want to do the Vuelta to put further pressure on Sky to release him a year early, so that he can go to another team - maybe just 1 more year, maybe 2, before retirement. The only team I really can see him going to - and this requires an immensely forgiving JV, a very contrite Wiggins, and a Wiggins saying 'sod the money - is Garmin. Why? Because JV loves TT'ing more than anything - and their TTTing has been shoot since Millar lost his TT mojo cos he was the powerhouse. Worlds TTT gold next year? Why not? And Wiggins and Hesjedal would be the GT experienced guys as Martin and Talansky continue to be brought on.

But Wiggins would have to convince JV that he would behave nicely and not upset the team dynamics.

Not sure if that's possible...

Gazzetta67

Good shout RR - agree with most if not all said. - Something still bothers me tho and thats my cynical side regarding froome, up until his 2nd place in the Vuelta 2 years ago his only win was the Tour of Guadaloupe or some french speaking island. Hmmm now tell me how can someone go from a chipper race to a GT podium....Oh having a cynical alert over a certain Mr Berzin 8)

Richmond Racer

Gazzetta67 wrote:

Good shout RR - agree with most if not all said. - Something still bothers me tho and thats my cynical side regarding froome, up until his 2nd place in the Vuelta 2 years ago his only win was the Tour of Guadaloupe or some french speaking island. Hmmm now tell me how can someone go from a chipper race to a GT podium....Oh having a cynical alert over a certain Mr Berzin 8)

It's difficult, Gazzetta. No doubt I'm crazy but I'd put large wedges of dosh down against Sky having any form of doping programme, or the other British rider in that team being dirty - because they've come through British Cycling and I'm got a lot of faith re the clean lines on which it's run. But Froome didn't come through that set-up. So with Wiggins, Cav, Stan, Kennaugh, G etc, i'd stake my reputation - with Froome I just couldn't do that.
Not because I think he is dodgy, but with him I just hope he isnt. And trust that Sky would have picked up anything pas normal if there was anything to pick up on, through internal tests and power output monitoring.

RichN95.

Gazzetta67 wrote:

Good shout RR - agree with most if not all said. - Something still bothers me tho and thats my cynical side regarding froome, up until his 2nd place in the Vuelta 2 years ago his only win was the Tour of Guadaloupe or some french speaking island. Hmmm now tell me how can someone go from a chipper race to a GT podium....Oh having a cynical alert over a certain Mr Berzin 8)

The thing with Berzin though was a) there was no worthwhile testing back then and b) there were loads making the exact same transformation.

With Froome, he's a one off. If it's down to doping you would have thought that someone else would have done the same. He wasn't a guy with much money or leverage in early 2011.

He's also different in that a year before he turned pro aged 21/22, he was a economics student at Jo'burg Uni. He hadn't had the cycling experience other had. The years of getting race experience and building up the miles in the legs that other riders do in the juniors and u23s with their federation and feeder teams he had to do at Barloworld. He was always lagging behind on the development curve.

He may be doping (I don't think he is), but you can't judge his development in the same way as usual cyclists.

Anonymous

Crankbrother wrote:

I hope this is the end for Wiggins ...

FF thinks he should get more respect but I wholly disagree ... Achieved nothing other than school sports gold medals until Garmin gave him a chance and back-up ...

He then moved to,SKY for the money (no argument there) and eventually became the big fish in a small pond (although Cavendish challenged that success with results and then moved on) ... Turns out when other fish fancy a nibble Wiggins isn't up to the scrap ...

He received a premature honour on the wave of corporate olympic gladhanding schisterism ... I'd go on record that Jimmy Saville deserved his knighthood more ...

Wiggins=finished, mind and body ...

Never seen a more ridiculous post.

Le Commentateur

I think the 2011 Vuelta showed up Wiggins limitations relative to the potential of Froome.

Wiggins contract runs out at the end of this year and I doubt it is going to be extended by Sky.

2012 was an amazing run, but it's time to warm down ahead of retirement.

Richmond Racer

Le Commentateur wrote:

I think the 2011 Vuelta showed up Wiggins limitations relative to the potential of Froome.


Wiggins contract runs out at the end of this year and I doubt it is going to be extended by Sky.

2012 was an amazing run, but it's time to warm down ahead of retirement.

His contract runs till end-14, not end-13. As for whether it's 'time to warm-down', I'd challenge that. He's 33 not 36/37. For instance he's the only rider capable of beating Tony Martin, and could keep that rivalry going for another couple of years. Depends what he ends up deciding he wants to try and achieve and if he can make all the sacrifices he personally has to make to be at the top of his game.

nic_77

Garmin, Garmin, Garmin. Nothing would fit JV's reconcilatory ethos more than forgiving the prodigal son. Plus he needs a Short-term GC guy.

thomthom

Not getting younger. I think he'd win the most if he ended like he began. Focusing on the TT. But can't see him beating Martin in form in the future - he's not reached his best ages yet.

Bakunin

Wiggins is a diva -- and Sky doesn't need his drama. Froome, whether he is ET or not, seems a much more sensible and reasonable employee.

For someone that is supposed to have a great sense of humor, when Wiggins' success came on the road he came off (more often than not) as a self-absorbed ass. A humorless twit. I liked him when he was with Cofidis, going crazy on 200K solo breakaways and telling the dopers to go to hell.

JV will never go back to Wiggins -- Wiggo burned a bridge at Garmin. If you look at what JV wrote about him in CN's Psych Ward, JV argued that Wiggo existed outside of the team to a great extent. It was a case of hate to see you go, get out.

Bo Duke

What a storm in a teacup, Cadel Evans won the TdF then achieved zippo last year then has stormed back this year. Wiggo burnt out in 2012, discard him at your peril for next year.