Wiggins Interview

Duncanandthemachine
Duncanandthemachine Posts: 263
edited August 2013 in Pro race
Surprised no one has posted a link already, its freely available, so I won't.

What are your thoughts? Couldn't watch the tv coverage because he was too sad?

I've been a big fan, but he's behaving like a bit of a tool...
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Comments

  • rickyrider
    rickyrider Posts: 294
    I'm sure most of us know a Wiggins type - a mate of mine from uni was just like him. Brilliant fun to be around when he was up, a total pain in the arse when he was down. His mood could infect an entire room for better or worse. People like this are often very talented, but there comes a point when everyone has enough and moves on. Given what Wiggo has achieved, his age, and his apparent lack of ambition for the Grand Tours going forwards, I wonder whether Sky management are moving on without him at the front of their minds. Froome is clearly a greater talent, and patently a whole lot easier to manage, so I wouldn't be surprised.
  • Give me more
    Give me more Posts: 487
    I don't really see him behaving like a tool? So he didn't actively watch this years tour because he was upset about not being able to participate himself? Big deal.

    It's not like he didn't pay a ton of respect to both the Sky team and to what Froome accomplished this year in the same interview. Even went so far as to say Chris is certainly a stronger rider when it comes to tours like this years.
  • Duncanandthemachine
    Duncanandthemachine Posts: 263
    I think for me, it was the whole 'I'll be there to support Chris next year' and then...well not! Took his time to publicly offer congratulations too.
  • menchovʹsstabilisers
    menchovʹsstabilisers Posts: 122
    Duncanandthemachine wrote:
    Surprised no one has posted a link already, its freely available, so I won't.

    What are your thoughts? Couldn't watch the tv coverage because he was too sad?

    I've been a big fan, but he's behaving like a bit of a tool...

    He made an exception for the OricaGreenEdge team bus on Stage One though.
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 43,462
    Duncanandthemachine wrote:
    I think for me, it was the whole 'I'll be there to support Chris next year' and then...well not! Took his time to publicly offer congratulations too.

    Why do people feel he needed to offer public congratulations though? I would hope he contacted Froome or saw him face to face and congratulated him and as a Wiggins fan I'd be disappointed if he didn't. Public congratulation is for politicians and hangers on who like to somehow feel part of the success. Also, when he said he'd be there to support Froome he didn't know he would have been ill and injured in the run up and completely out of form.
  • markhewitt1978
    markhewitt1978 Posts: 7,614
    Pross wrote:
    Duncanandthemachine wrote:
    I think for me, it was the whole 'I'll be there to support Chris next year' and then...well not! Took his time to publicly offer congratulations too.

    Why do people feel he needed to offer public congratulations though? I would hope he contacted Froome or saw him face to face and congratulated him and as a Wiggins fan I'd be disappointed if he didn't. Public congratulation is for politicians and hangers on who like to somehow feel part of the success. Also, when he said he'd be there to support Froome he didn't know he would have been ill and injured in the run up and completely out of form.

    No; the point was that Froome himself said he hadn't heard anything from Wiggins. Either in public or private.
    You would, in general, expect the outgoing champion to congratulate the new. Usually of course this would happen face to face in Paris.
  • Richmond Racer
    Richmond Racer Posts: 8,561
    what a storm in a tea-cup

    or a bidon
  • Agent57
    Agent57 Posts: 2,300
    Duncanandthemachine wrote:
    Surprised no one has posted a link already, its freely available, so I won't.

    I love the irony of that sentence.

    Anyway, can you or someone post a link? I don't know which interview we're talking about here. I found this one - http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2013/ju ... ance-again - from June, but obviously that was pre-Tour. Doesn't read like he's being a tool there, and seems quite accepting of Froome being number one on merit, and that he may not have the motivation to ride the Tour again.
    MTB commuter / 531c commuter / CR1 Team 2009 / RockHopper Pro Disc / 10 mile PB: 25:52 (Jun 2014)
  • iainf72
    iainf72 Posts: 15,784
    Richmond Racer wrote:
    what a storm in a tea-cup

    or a bidon

    If it was other way round I bet you'd have a different opinion
    Fckin' Quintana … that creep can roll, man.
  • Richmond Racer
    Richmond Racer Posts: 8,561
    Agent57 wrote:
    Duncanandthemachine wrote:
    Surprised no one has posted a link already, its freely available, so I won't.

    I love the irony of that sentence.

    Anyway, can you or someone post a link? I don't know which interview we're talking about here. I found this one - http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2013/ju ... ance-again - from June, but obviously that was pre-Tour. Doesn't read like he's being a tool there, and seems quite accepting of Froome being number one on merit, and that he may not have the motivation to ride the Tour again.


    Here's the interview from last Sat

    http://t.co/eiHlfG9Mhp
  • Tom Butcher
    Tom Butcher Posts: 3,830
    edited July 2013
    If he doesn't like Froome why would he congratulate him? Perhaps he feels that Froome and Michelle Cound's comments and actions last year were less than supportive. I don't claim to know the rights and wrongs of what has gone on but Wiggins has acknowledged Froome deserved to win this year - I seem to remember Froome being a bit more equivocal about whether Wiggo deserved it last year.

    Read what Michelle Cound has written today - it mean come on she has the cheek to blame Wiggo for lacking class.
    it's a hard life if you don't weaken.
  • gavbarron
    gavbarron Posts: 824
    Amazing how last year he couldn't do wrong but now Froome has flourished and we have a new winner everybody is jumping on the bash Wiggins band wagon. He is a multiple Olympic gold medalist at multiple Olympics in multiple disciplines and winner of the Tour De France. I think he's entitled to an off season and to be a little upset about being unable to perform or partake in this years tour. As for the timing of his congratulations of Froome, is there a requirement to make an official statement as soon as possible? It's only been a week! Has he been questioned about it in other interviews? I'm sure he sent a personal message to the team congratulating them ALL (particularly Porte since he was the reason Froome won).
    Sportsmen don't need to be nice guys, I didn't find myself warming to Wiggins in any way whatsoever and found his general persona to be a little surly whenever I saw him on camera, but that said, I'm not trying to be his friend so don't really care about anything he does off the bike.
    Everyone loved him last year and yet this year he gets knocked from all angles, seems to be a sad British habit.
  • markhewitt1978
    markhewitt1978 Posts: 7,614
    Tom Butcher wrote:
    If he doesn't like Froome why would he congratulate him?

    At the end of a tennis match the two players will always shake hands.
    At the end of football match the two managers will shake hands, if one of them refuses it's a news story!

    They may hate each others guts, but it's the done thing.
  • ddraver
    ddraver Posts: 26,695
    Can people post links to things please? No I ve no idea what michelle wrote today and which website out of the gazillions on the web should I start with?

    Still have nt seen said interview either
    We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
    - @ddraver
  • Give me more
    Give me more Posts: 487
    ddraver wrote:
    Can people post links to things please? No I ve no idea what michelle wrote today and which website out of the gazillions on the web should I start with?

    Still have nt seen said interview either

    The interview is in Richmond Racer's post, it's only 2 mins long (youtube).
  • chrisaonabike
    chrisaonabike Posts: 1,914
    ddraver wrote:
    Can people post links to things please? No I ve no idea what michelle wrote today and which website out of the gazillions on the web should I start with?
    +1

    Nothing in that interview that's the slightest bit out of order that I can see. He didn't want to watch the tour since he was injured and sick and couldn't be there and it would have p1ssed him off all the more, and he freely admits that Froome is a stronger rider on Tours with lots of mountains.

    What's the issue?
    Is the gorilla tired yet?
  • Richmond Racer
    Richmond Racer Posts: 8,561
    markhewitt1978 wrote:
    Tom Butcher wrote:
    If he doesn't like Froome why would he congratulate him?

    At the end of a tennis match the two players will always shake hands.
    At the end of football match the two managers will shake hands, if one of them refuses it's a news story!

    They may hate each others guts, but it's the done thing.


    Erm...they weren't competing against each other in a race

    What next, disappointment in Froome that he didnt send a get well card to Wiggins after he dropped out of the Giro? Jeez, people...
  • markhewitt1978
    markhewitt1978 Posts: 7,614
    Richmond Racer wrote:
    markhewitt1978 wrote:
    Tom Butcher wrote:
    If he doesn't like Froome why would he congratulate him?

    At the end of a tennis match the two players will always shake hands.
    At the end of football match the two managers will shake hands, if one of them refuses it's a news story!

    They may hate each others guts, but it's the done thing.


    Erm...they weren't competing against each other in a race

    What next, disappointment in Froome that he didnt send a get well card to Wiggins after he dropped out of the Giro? Jeez, people...

    The difference is that Wiggins is the previous winner of the TdF. You would expect him to congratulate the winner, whoever it is, but especially so considering it's a member of his own team!
  • Richmond Racer
    Richmond Racer Posts: 8,561
    and he has

    so is everyone happy now, or still outraged on Froome's behalf?
  • disgruntledgoat
    disgruntledgoat Posts: 8,957
    How do you know he didn't congratulate him privately? Not everything is for public consumption is it?
    "In many ways, my story was that of a raging, Christ-like figure who hauled himself off the cross, looked up at the Romans with blood in his eyes and said 'My turn, sock cookers'"

    @gietvangent
  • adr82
    adr82 Posts: 4,002
    disgruntledgoat wrote:
    How do you know he didn't congratulate him privately? Not everything is for public consumption is it?
    Well there were some news stories after the final stage where Froome was quoted as saying he hadn't heard anything from Wiggins so far. Example
  • ddraver
    ddraver Posts: 26,695
    Give me more wrote:
    ddraver wrote:
    Can people post links to things please? No I ve no idea what michelle wrote today and which website out of the gazillions on the web should I start with?

    Still have nt seen said interview either

    The interview is in Richmond Racer's post, it's only 2 mins long (youtube).

    What has Michelle said today?
    We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
    - @ddraver
  • above_the_cows
    above_the_cows Posts: 11,406
    ddraver wrote:
    What has Michelle said today?

    That she'd like a brown roll with cheese for her lunch, milk but no sugar in her tea and hold the biscuits.

    Sorry that is probably not what she's said but I couldn't be bothered to fuel this total non-story anymore even though I haven't watched the Wiggins interview (link now posted) or checked my Michelle Cound Google Alert cache today.
    Correlation is not causation.
  • Paulie W
    Paulie W Posts: 1,492
    gavbarron wrote:
    Everyone loved him last year and yet this year he gets knocked from all angles, seems to be a sad British habit.

    Does anyone know where this notion that the British love to knock their winners comes from? Because for the most part its bollox.
  • Agent57
    Agent57 Posts: 2,300
    Richmond Racer wrote:
    Here's the interview from last Sat
    http://t.co/eiHlfG9Mhp

    Thanks.

    To respond to the OP, I can't say he came across as "a bit of a tool" in that interview. Seemed pretty reasonable to me. What's wrong with feeling upset about things? And if he is, why force himself to endure the torment of watching others doing what he would rather be doing himself?

    Any why's it such a big deal anyway? Meh, I shouldn't even have bothered posting this. (But I'm about to.)
    MTB commuter / 531c commuter / CR1 Team 2009 / RockHopper Pro Disc / 10 mile PB: 25:52 (Jun 2014)
  • Tom Butcher
    Tom Butcher Posts: 3,830
    markhewitt1978 wrote:
    Tom Butcher wrote:
    If he doesn't like Froome why would he congratulate him?

    At the end of a tennis match the two players will always shake hands.
    At the end of football match the two managers will shake hands, if one of them refuses it's a news story!

    They may hate each others guts, but it's the done thing.

    Do they also have to phone each other up and congratulate each other? Bit different shaking the hand of someone you've played against and congratulating someone for winning an event you weren't in isn't it.
    it's a hard life if you don't weaken.
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 43,462
    Tom Butcher wrote:
    markhewitt1978 wrote:
    Tom Butcher wrote:
    If he doesn't like Froome why would he congratulate him?

    At the end of a tennis match the two players will always shake hands.
    At the end of football match the two managers will shake hands, if one of them refuses it's a news story!

    They may hate each others guts, but it's the done thing.

    Do they also have to phone each other up and congratulate each other? Bit different shaking the hand of someone you've played against and congratulating someone for winning an event you weren't in isn't it.

    Just wanted to congratulate you on doing your job well today Tom, just in case anyone thinks I'm a bit of tool for not doing so.
  • FJS
    FJS Posts: 4,820
    I think Brailsford recently said he wasn't interested in team bonding, team spirit, etc. It shows (I'd say it's normal to personally congratulate a team mate for winning the TdF, especially after receiving support from that team mate/team the previous year, but hey, Wiggo's popularity stems from him being a 'character'), but doesn't seem to stop them being pretty successful. They'll ride together in one team in some form, and will be professional about it.
  • Yellow Peril
    Yellow Peril Posts: 4,466
    FJS wrote:
    I think Brailsford recently said he wasn't interested in team bonding, team spirit, etc. It shows (I'd say it's normal to personally congratulate a team mate for winning the TdF, especially after receiving support from that team mate/team the previous year, but hey, Wiggo's popularity stems from him being a 'character'), but doesn't seem to stop them being pretty successful. They'll ride together in one team in some form, and will be professional about it.

    I think this is a very valid point. A colleague of mine was returning from Manchester to the IOM on the Monday morning after the Tour. He said that Little Pete was also waiting for the same connecting flight so he must have left France very early that morning so I doubt there can have been much of a post Tour party.
    @JaunePeril

    Winner of the Bike Radar Pro Race Wiggins Hour Prediction Competition
  • d.mart
    d.mart Posts: 88
    Not sure but 'mountain' and 'mole hill' may be rather apt here...

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