Froome on Wiggins and more

t5nel

I though that was the most thoughtful I have seen Wiggins in an interview TBH. I have time for both CF and BW and find it very annoying that they wont put aside differences to put on the show that the spectators want. Professional sport is, in part, about the show. CF has not come out of this as well as BW imo

I wonder if a twitter back lash will start with people trying to pressure SKY and CF to change their mind - just need an appropriate # tag

tailwindhome

UK Cycling Expert ‏@ukcyclingexpert · 13m
So, the Le Tour de France starts on British roads but Sir Wiggins will be competing abroad at the Commonwealth Games in Scotland! Shame!

Macaloon

Bedlam in the Vilodrome as Team <Redacted> loses Bikeradar ProRace.

jscl

Pross wrote:

jimmythecuckoo wrote:

Anyone else think this could spectacularly back fire on them?

Yes, when Porte falls apart which I think he's liable to do on this season's form. I can't think any other team would leave out a recent winner who appears to be hitting good form and who didn't ride the Giro. Plus, I can't believe Wiggins is prepared to settle for the CG track events instead - maybe the track sessions are prep for an assault on the hour??

Doing 750m efforts isn't really hour record prep.

Turfle

It's s shame, but I can fully understand it from Froome's perspective.

Would be nice for Brad to get a good gig elsewhere next year, and come in fully ready to take Froome on in TT heavy one week races.

gattocattivo

Hopefully anyone but Froome will win it this year

Pross

JSCL wrote:

Pross wrote:

jimmythecuckoo wrote:

Anyone else think this could spectacularly back fire on them?

Yes, when Porte falls apart which I think he's liable to do on this season's form. I can't think any other team would leave out a recent winner who appears to be hitting good form and who didn't ride the Giro. Plus, I can't believe Wiggins is prepared to settle for the CG track events instead - maybe the track sessions are prep for an assault on the hour??

Doing 750m efforts isn't really hour record prep.

Would be for me

mechanism

It is the logical decision but still I'm gutted.

salsiccia1

gattocattivo wrote:

Hopefully anyone but Froome will win it this year

Why? Froome is obviously the better GT rider, especially on a route with naff-all time trialling. Sky are building a team around him to win the tour for Sky. It's a shame for Wiggins but it's not all about him. And it sounds like he acknowledges that.

thegreatdivide

gattocattivo wrote:

Hopefully anyone but Froome will win it this year

This.

Sky rage asside I honestly think he's going to get gubbed this year.

Mad_Malx

Pross wrote:

Plus, I can't believe Wiggins is prepared to settle for the CG track events instead - maybe the track sessions are prep for an assault on the hour??

I would have though WC TT would be somewhat higher on his agenda than the hour - it's the obvious thing missing from his palmares - but this is always going to depend in large part on Tony's fittness.

Commie track more likely to be his bid to get in to 2016 olympic squad, so he can out-bemedal SirChris.

Pross

Mechanism wrote:

It is the logical decision but still I'm gutted.

It's not really logical at all. Leaving a recent winner of the race out of the squad when he's hitting the best form since winning and relying on a rider who has struggled to finish a race all season as the key support rider / back up leader is ludicrous.

DeVlaeminck

On the plus side I no longer have that tension between supporting British cyclists and disliking the Sky/Murdoch connection to the team ! No doubt Froome will be getting a few choice words thrown at him on Holme Moss. Come on Vincenzo Nibali.

mfin

Pross wrote:

mm1 wrote:

Pro performance from Brad on BBC Breakfast, charming, diplomatic and assured. No contest between them off the bike and in the public spotlight. Wiggins is said not to like the limelight, but he comes across very well in front of a camera.

Well, when he's not drunk or calling journalists a bunch of *****!

That's hardly the norm for him though is it. The norm is that he comes across well, maybe not to people who have a predisposition to not take to him though once they've heard one or two things he might have said.

smokey_bacon

Pross wrote:

Mechanism wrote:

It is the logical decision but still I'm gutted.

It's not really logical at all. Leaving a recent winner of the race out of the squad when he's hitting the best form since winning and relying on a rider who has struggled to finish a race all season as the key support rider / back up leader is ludicrous.

IMHO its not a performance thing, its a personality/political thing, on a few levels. If the Dauphine is a blowout for sky then the real inquisition could begin, however if they smash it then its kind of irrelevant.

jam1e

From reading the BBC report and not having watched the interview - did he not use the qualifier "as things stand"? I imagine things might stand slightly differently if he dominates in Switzerland.

iainf72

Pross wrote:

Mechanism wrote:

It is the logical decision but still I'm gutted.

It's not really logical at all. Leaving a recent winner of the race out of the squad when he's hitting the best form since winning and relying on a rider who has struggled to finish a race all season as the key support rider / back up leader is ludicrous.

That works if you think of the tour squad as a collection of individuals. It's not, it's a team, so making sure they gel is the important thing for Sky.

Did you listen to the Cycling Podcast? They cover it pretty well

r0bh

Smokey Bacon wrote:

Pross wrote:

Mechanism wrote:

It is the logical decision but still I'm gutted.

It's not really logical at all. Leaving a recent winner of the race out of the squad when he's hitting the best form since winning and relying on a rider who has struggled to finish a race all season as the key support rider / back up leader is ludicrous.

IMHO its not a performance thing, its a personality/political thing, on a few levels. If the Dauphine is a blowout for sky then the real inquisition could begin, however if they smash it then its kind of irrelevant.

Porte's form at the Dauphine will be critical; if he is still riding like a bag of spanners things could get interesting

iainf72

jam1e wrote:

From reading the BBC report and not having watched the interview - did he not use the qualifier "as things stand"? I imagine things might stand slightly differently if he dominates in Switzerland.

Nope. Only if Froome can't go, and in that case Wiggins goes as support for Porte

thegreatdivide

DeVlaeminck wrote:

On the plus side I no longer have that tension between supporting British cyclists and disliking the Sky/Murdoch connection to the team ! No doubt Froome will be getting a few choice words thrown at him on Holme Moss. Come on Vincenzo Nibali.

I’m riding to the tour from Edinburgh over three days with Sky as a promotion for the race/team/company – I might just pitch up in a Saxo jersey out of protest ;-)

r0bh

iainf72 wrote:

Pross wrote:

Mechanism wrote:

It is the logical decision but still I'm gutted.

It's not really logical at all. Leaving a recent winner of the race out of the squad when he's hitting the best form since winning and relying on a rider who has struggled to finish a race all season as the key support rider / back up leader is ludicrous.

That works if you think of the tour squad as a collection of individuals. It's not, it's a team, so making sure they gel is the important thing for Sky.

Did you listen to the Cycling Podcast? They cover it pretty well

But it doesn't matter if they gel yet are a weak team. Surely the skill of a great manager is to get the strongest possible team to gel as well as they need to to do the job. If the Sky Tour team really is the Dauphine squad plus 1 or 2 others that just doesn't look that string to me, nowhere near the strength of the 2012 team.

eh

Could be a cunning plan to build public support, so much that leaving him out is not an option. 2 questions remain if he isn't going:

1) Does DB not have any balls when dealing with Froome?

2) What are they paying Wiggins all that money for if he isn't going to ride the biggest races?

DeVlaeminck

iainf72 wrote:

Wiggins in L'equipe

He won't be at Tour. If Froome gets injured, maybe, but only as support for Porte. If anyone else gets injured he won' t get the call up

Wiggins is a support role for Porte, I almost hope this happens just to see how Brailsford deals with the flack. BC could start offering support to OGE now.

Anonymous

Froome is looking like more and more of a primadonna prick.
Wiggins was a shouty plonker at times, but at least he was a likeable rogue.

iainf72

coriordan wrote:

Froome is looking like more and more of a primadonna prick.
Wiggins was a shouty plonker at times, but at least he was a likeable rogue.

To the public maybe. But your description of Froome is how I understand a lot of Sky see Wiggins.

Turfle

Would Wiggins have picked Froome to support him last year? I doubt it. They both have issues with the other, let's not rewrite it as Froome being the only one with issues. I think Wiggo would be the good team player, but I can't blame Froome for doubting it.

tuneskyline

Wiggins said he was in good form on the breakfast TV. He should easily get in the Sky Team. If everyone is fit and he is not picked then it's obvious Sky don't want him upsetting team harmony and wrecking Froome's chance.
Froome is the main man. Simple.

gattocattivo

Salsiccia1 wrote:

gattocattivo wrote:

Hopefully anyone but Froome will win it this year

Why? Froome is obviously the better GT rider, especially on a route with naff-all time trialling. Sky are building a team around him to win the tour for Sky. It's a shame for Wiggins but it's not all about him. And it sounds like he acknowledges that.

You seem to be assuming that the most important thing for me is that Sky win. I couldn't give a monkeys if Sky win. This may well be the best thing for team harmony if Froome is the leader of the team, but that's of no interest to me. I like Wiggins, he's the first British rider to win the Tour but he's been excluded from riding the Tour ever since. They can't even try to fall back on an argument about form or injury this time, it's purely about a clash of personalities. I would have liked to see Wiggins in the Tour again full stop, but especially with the race starting over here, and even more so as it's going to pass within a couple of miles of my house.

Pross

iainf72 wrote:

Pross wrote:

Mechanism wrote:

It is the logical decision but still I'm gutted.

It's not really logical at all. Leaving a recent winner of the race out of the squad when he's hitting the best form since winning and relying on a rider who has struggled to finish a race all season as the key support rider / back up leader is ludicrous.

That works if you think of the tour squad as a collection of individuals. It's not, it's a team, so making sure they gel is the important thing for Sky.

Did you listen to the Cycling Podcast? They cover it pretty well

To me Wiggins appears to know that he wouldn't be the leader and would have accepted riding in support (I suspect that in reality he would know he doesn't stand a chance of winning). Therefore it seems the only potential clash is in Froome's head as he possibly has a guilty conscience for how he acted 2 years ago. If he had any sense he would be grateful of the experienced support (for flatlands as well as mountains). It all seems really churlish and could backfire on him.

Pross

eh wrote:

Could be a cunning plan to build public support, so much that leaving him out is not an option. 2 questions remain if he isn't going:

1) Does DB not have any balls when dealing with Froome?

2) What are they paying Wiggins all that money for if he isn't going to ride the biggest races?

3) Why didn't they send him to the Giro when all their other options went AWOL?