Wiggo broken hearted???

wallace_and_gromit

ddraver wrote:

Wallace and Gromit wrote:

ddraver wrote:

with you there...the worst place to see a cyclist in a race is the roadside....

Agreed. But we want to be able to say we saw the Tour in God's Own County, not on telly. You can watch it on telly every year.

True dat

Watching a RACE is excellent, but watching a RIDER is (usually) rubbish

We're going to be watching in the neutral zone. Easy to get to, so we can be home in time to watch the finish on telly!

argyllflyer

Pross wrote:

Edit - time loss was due to mechanical wasn't it? He did crash but at the end of a stage so no time lost.

He punctured on stage 1 and it was not inside the last 3km. He came in well over a minute down and lost that time. No one waited for him.

adr82

argyllflyer wrote:

Pross wrote:

Edit - time loss was due to mechanical wasn't it? He did crash but at the end of a stage so no time lost.

He punctured on stage 1 and it was not inside the last 3km. He came in well over a minute down and lost that time. No one waited for him.

Porte waited for him, according to his book:

Then I punctured. Richie saw it. I didn’t ask him to wait, and the team definitely didn’t ask him to wait. But he did. Richie had every chance of finishing high up on GC in this Tour but on the first stage, he sacrificed that for me. That was an incredible thing to do.

Pross

argyllflyer wrote:

Pross wrote:

Edit - time loss was due to mechanical wasn't it? He did crash but at the end of a stage so no time lost.

He punctured on stage 1 and it was not inside the last 3km. He came in well over a minute down and lost that time. No one waited for him.

Sorry, yes it was the crash I initially mentioned that he had on Stage 3?? that was within the last 3km. I had originally thought that was where Froome had lost his time. He also lost about 1 minute 50 seconds in time trials which my feeling is Wiggins would never have lost to Froome in the hills had Froome been allowed to do his own thing.

argyllflyer

Pross wrote:

argyllflyer wrote:

Pross wrote:

Edit - time loss was due to mechanical wasn't it? He did crash but at the end of a stage so no time lost.

He punctured on stage 1 and it was not inside the last 3km. He came in well over a minute down and lost that time. No one waited for him.

Sorry, yes it was the crash I initially mentioned that he had on Stage 3?? that was within the last 3km. I had originally thought that was where Froome had lost his time. He also lost about 1 minute 50 seconds in time trials which my feeling is Wiggins would never have lost to Froome in the hills had Froome been allowed to do his own thing.

Yeah the time losses in the TTs were significant, but Froome got no opportunity to take time back in the mountains. It's difficult to say what would or would not have happened if he'd been allowed to do his thing. A very different last few km in those stages if they'd been riding against each other.

And 'no one' waiting for him was slight hyperbole on my part! His GC hopes certainly took a dent on Stage 1. IIRC he tried to justify his 'attacks' on Wiggins as reclaiming that lost time.

mike6

Wallace and Gromit wrote:

type:epyt wrote:

I don't buy into this 'personality' malarky. Wiggins acts like the awkward kid at school who is the class clown to hide his faults. The public don't really have a clue about Wiggins' personality, just a few like to pretend they do and think that he is 'cool'. The masses also provide folks like Chris Tarrant and Noel Edmonds with a healthy income based on their 'personalities'. Hardly a glowing endorsement.

That's a bit deep for me. I just like the bloke as he comes over on the telly and in print, imperfect as he may be and would prefer it if he was on the Sky roster for the Grand Depart. I might dislike him intensely if I met him in real life, obviously!

Anyone that says what they feel, rather than the "media speak" (ala Armstrong) that lots of pro cyclists come out with, is ok with me. Cav for instance. Sometimes he has to apologise for what he has said, post race interview wise, but at least he is saying what he thinks at the time and how he feels. Its an insight into the pressures of top pro cycling.
I dont know Wiggins but at least he is worth listening to, what you see is what you get.

Macaloon

mike6 wrote:

Anyone that says what they feel, rather than the "media speak" (ala Armstrong) that lots of pro cyclists come out with, is ok with me. Cav for instance. Sometimes he has to apologise for what he has said, post race interview wise, but at least he is saying what he thinks at the time and how he feels. Its an insight into the pressures of top pro cycling.
I dont know Wiggins but at least he is worth listening to, what you see is what you get.

I'm afraid that's Tripe. Since 2012 he's done precious little saying what he thinks.

The 2012 Tour de France winner, who signed up to Simon Fuller’s XIX stable last year, joining other British stars with one foot in the States such as David Beckham, Andy Murray and Lewis Hamilton, has made no secret of his desire to tap into a cycling culture which he believes has been left with a “void” to fill following the demise of Lance Armstrong.

Wiggins said earlier this year that he believed the American public had been “robbed” by the seven-time Tour de France champion’s actions, adding that he felt it incumbent upon him, as “one of only a handful of clean Tour winners”, to do what he could to restore the credibility of cycling in the States.

Does he stand by those comments? “Definitely,” Wiggins said. “There’s kind of no one here. Well, they’ve got these incredible young riders, future Tour winners in guys like Tejay van Garderen and Joe Dombrowksi, super talented guys like Taylor Phinney... but they are relatively unknown to the wider public. You mention cycling to anyone here and the first thing they think of is Lance Armstrong.

“So there is a gap and if I can leave a bit of a mark post-cycling in terms of helping to instill the faith a little bit more – because there are not many of us, Tour winners with no history whatsoever, no mumblings, no rumblings...I mean you get all this garbage on Twitter but actual factual...there is none of that with me and never has been because of the way I have conducted my whole career.”

Almost an ambassadorial role then? Anything Beckham can do and all that?

“I wouldn’t say that exactly. But I said at the start of the year that I’d really embraced my position now as a past winner of the Tour. I’m much more proud now to have won the Tour de France than I was maybe 15 months ago. And I think it’s kind of inevitable that I will fall into that position, as one of the elder statesmen of the peloton now.

“It’s about respecting the sport. I’m trying to do that with the things I target, whether it’s Paris-Roubaix or this race. I’m quite comfortable with all of that now. The way you conduct yourself and the things that you say during the presentation each day, to the public. It was quite a new role for me here but I really enjoyed it to be honest.”

type:epyt

I'm with Macaloon on this one.

Yes, Wiggins often says random stuff but as I mentioned it comes across as a mask to hide behind. The rest of the time he's just putting his media training to use.

Currently he's using the training given by Fuller and not those paying his wages.

Cavendish on the other hand is usually 3 syllables away from PR disaster (even when his team are 'super').

edit: I had to check how I even got started on this train of thought. Wiggins missing from the race is likely no big deal but Wiggins missing from the hoopla around the race seems to be what folk will miss most.

r0bh

type:epyt wrote:

I'm with Macaloon on this one.

Yes, Wiggins often says random stuff but as I mentioned it comes across as a mask to hide behind. The rest of the time he's just putting his media training to use.

Currently he's using the training given by Fuller and not those paying his wages.

Cavendish on the other hand is usually 3 syllables away from PR disaster (even when his team are 'super').

Yeah, calling a section of cycling fans the C word was straight out of a media training course wasn't it. :roll:

type:epyt

r0bh wrote:

type:epyt wrote:

Yeah, calling a section of cycling fans the C word was straight out of a media training course wasn't it. :roll:

That would be the mask to hide behind mentioned earlier in my post. So you can pop your eyes back to neutral now.

r0bh

type:epyt wrote:

r0bh wrote:

type:epyt wrote:

Yeah, calling a section of cycling fans the C word was straight out of a media training course wasn't it. :roll:

That would be the mask to hide behind mentioned earlier in my post. So you can pop your eyes back to neutral now.

Unless you know Wiggins personally you cannot possibly know whether his interview persona is the real Wiggins or a "mask".

type:epyt

Apologies, just my opinion. I've only ever met one pro cyclist but he rides for a domestic team so I'll not bother commenting on him either. Although I do wonder as he's also not riding the Tour if he's broken hearted too.

mechanism

Mahatma Ghandi, Nelson Mandela, Aung San Suu Kyi, Mother Theresa... Bradley Wiggins

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeXOdLpjCok&feature=youtu.be

Daz555

Mechanism wrote:

Mahatma Ghandi, Nelson Mandela, Aung San Suu Kyi, Mother Theresa... Bradley Wiggins

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeXOdLpjCok&feature=youtu.be

Bloody funny.

Although Mother Theresa - nasty woman. :evil:

Macaloon

Daz555 wrote:

Mechanism wrote:

Mahatma Ghandi, Nelson Mandela, Aung San Suu Kyi, Mother Theresa... Bradley Wiggins

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeXOdLpjCok&feature=youtu.be

Bloody funny.

Although Mother Theresa - nasty woman. :evil:

Say what you like, but she knew how to suffer.

Skyfans react to confirmation of Wiggo's martyrdom.

above_the_cows

Macaloon wrote:

Skyfans react to confirmation of Wiggo's martyrdom.

Oh my god that is truly terrifying. :shock:

TMR

r0bh wrote:

Yeah, calling a section of cycling fans the C word was straight out of a media training course wasn't it. :roll:

Sometimes you need to call a spade a spade. And I agreed with him.

redshoes

First post on BR. My site name Red shoes is my fav Kate Bush cd.
To the matter in hand concerning Wiggins,,, I don't care he's a bit of tw%t.

many thanks

TMR

redshoes wrote:

First post on BR. My site name Red shoes is my fav Kate Bush cd.
To the matter in hand concerning Wiggins,,, I don't care he's a bit of tw%t.

many thanks

Kate Bush? Get out. Now.

mike6

Macaloon wrote:

mike6 wrote:

Anyone that says what they feel, rather than the "media speak" (ala Armstrong) that lots of pro cyclists come out with, is ok with me. Cav for instance. Sometimes he has to apologise for what he has said, post race interview wise, but at least he is saying what he thinks at the time and how he feels. Its an insight into the pressures of top pro cycling.
I dont know Wiggins but at least he is worth listening to, what you see is what you get.

I'm afraid that's Tripe. Since 2012 he's done precious little saying what he thinks.

The 2012 Tour de France winner, who signed up to Simon Fuller’s XIX stable last year, joining other British stars with one foot in the States such as David Beckham, Andy Murray and Lewis Hamilton, has made no secret of his desire to tap into a cycling culture which he believes has been left with a “void” to fill following the demise of Lance Armstrong.

Wiggins said earlier this year that he believed the American public had been “robbed” by the seven-time Tour de France champion’s actions, adding that he felt it incumbent upon him, as “one of only a handful of clean Tour winners”, to do what he could to restore the credibility of cycling in the States.

Does he stand by those comments? “Definitely,” Wiggins said. “There’s kind of no one here. Well, they’ve got these incredible young riders, future Tour winners in guys like Tejay van Garderen and Joe Dombrowksi, super talented guys like Taylor Phinney... but they are relatively unknown to the wider public. You mention cycling to anyone here and the first thing they think of is Lance Armstrong.

“So there is a gap and if I can leave a bit of a mark post-cycling in terms of helping to instill the faith a little bit more – because there are not many of us, Tour winners with no history whatsoever, no mumblings, no rumblings...I mean you get all this garbage on Twitter but actual factual...there is none of that with me and never has been because of the way I have conducted my whole career.”

Almost an ambassadorial role then? Anything Beckham can do and all that?

“I wouldn’t say that exactly. But I said at the start of the year that I’d really embraced my position now as a past winner of the Tour. I’m much more proud now to have won the Tour de France than I was maybe 15 months ago. And I think it’s kind of inevitable that I will fall into that position, as one of the elder statesmen of the peloton now.

“It’s about respecting the sport. I’m trying to do that with the things I target, whether it’s Paris-Roubaix or this race. I’m quite comfortable with all of that now. The way you conduct yourself and the things that you say during the presentation each day, to the public. It was quite a new role for me here but I really enjoyed it to be honest.”

Thanks for that well reasoned and ballanced response. I said post race interview. Read the post before you bad mouth someone. "Tripe" indeed.

RoadPainter

It's all a bit of a mess at Sky. Biggest name (and only one that resonates with the public) left out of a home GT when he clearly could do a job for the team. Most people in the UK will remember 2014 TdF for Wiggo not riding long after the eventual winner (even if Froome wins)

Whether you like Wiggo or not, you can't deny he (and media coverage of him) has been a huge driver in cycling's growth in the UK. Froome hasn't had a fraction of that effect.

As I understand it, Wiggo's been piling on the track fat since ToC - which would explain slight underperformance in Suisse

type:epyt

So it turns out cycling fans are no different from any other sport.

One spoonful of success and a pinch of nationalistic fervour finished off with a topping of disappointment and you have the same recipe for disaster across the board (quite literally in this case).

Maybe Lance will make a comeback next year.

No_Ta_Doctor

RoadPainter wrote:

It's all a bit of a mess at Sky. Biggest name (and only one that resonates with the public) left out of a home GT when he clearly could do a job for the team. Most people in the UK will remember 2014 TdF for Wiggo not riding long after the eventual winner (even if Froome wins)

Whether you like Wiggo or not, you can't deny he (and media coverage of him) has been a huge driver in cycling's growth in the UK. Froome hasn't had a fraction of that effect.

As I understand it, Wiggo's been piling on the track fat since ToC - which would explain slight underperformance in Suisse

The pics I've seen from Abergavenny look like he's pretty lean. Resident Wiggins expert RR say's he's 2012 weight.

From a British cycling point of view, Wiggins missing is an absolute disaster. PR wise, Sky needed him there to validate Froome for the British public. I can see why he didn't get picked, but it's disappointing Brailsford and co. couldn't manage to find a resolution.

antsmithmk

Still feel bitter about Brad not riding the tour.

jimmythecuckoo

I would have liked to have seen him ride.

Just hope all this dies down when the racing starts.

mechanism

I'd like ITV or Eurosport to get him on as a commentator.

type:epyt

antsmithmk wrote:

Still feel bitter about Brad not riding the tour.

I'm sure in the grand scheme of things Sky do to. Their highest wage earner can't be trusted to ride the biggest race of the year.

Rob85_

I cannot believe the stick Wiggins is getting on this thread. Check his palmarès then check your own...

I find it disappointing that sole UCI World Tour British Team at the race they deem most important has more Spanish riders than British, its getting like football. I'm disappointed Wiggins isn't there as well as being disappointed about Kennaugh and feel for Stanard with his injury, I understand its probably a bit soon for Rowe.

I feel that Brailsford has failed to manage this situation that has clearly been brewing for sometime. In my opinion it has to be purely down to personality because Wiggins has had a very good season this year. Its true he seems to go off the rails a bit after major successes, but seems to have his head screwed on again now. He did well at Paris-Roubaix, won the Tour of California and showed tactical nous in the stage with the crosswinds forcing a strong break, and just won the British TT championships.

I'm trying not to resort to the same as others and say negative things about Professional World Tour riders who are all far better than me, but I don't believe that Danny Pate is on better form or a better rider than Bradley Wiggins.

I think the pace Wiggins could set would have been a major advantage, he wouldn't even have needed to be in a vital last man or second to last. If you look at last year with G's injury, Boasson Hagen dropping out injured and Kiryienka not making the time limit I feel he was worth a shot.

Oh well its going to be a good tour regardless, I feel that Sky won't have it all there way this year.

type:epyt

Rob85_ wrote:

I cannot believe the stick Wiggins is getting on this thread. Check his palmarès then check your own...

Hmm, so are you saying that Wiggins didn't get a ride because he's not the best plumber, fireman, quantity surveyor or HR manager?

adr82

Rob85_ wrote:

Its true he seems to go off the rails a bit after major successes

Or when he thinks people are plotting against him. Or when he just cannot be arsed. The point is that he can't be trusted to maintain an attitude of "I'll bury myself for Chris every day" during the Tour. Sky understandably made the decision to take someone else who isn't as strong a rider as Wiggins is when he's really up for it, but who can at least be counted on to give everything any time they're asked. A reliable rider who gives you say 80% of "Wiggo performance" is a better bet in a GT than one who might give you 100% or 10% depending on whatever backstage drama is currently taking place between him and Froome.