Wiggins wins Romandie, scares fans.

//Wiggins wins Romandie, scares fans.

Wiggins wins Romandie, scares fans.

Bradley Wiggins, Tour winner?

 

This season Bradley Wiggins has won overall honors in both Paris-Nice and the Tour of Romandie. British cycling fans are now officially terrified. Slow down, Bradley, slow down for Godsakes!

What’s they’re so scared about is that Wiggins as done too much too soon in his build up to winning the 2012 Tour de France. In essence, his form, confidence and leadership are all so high that perhaps he can only go down. This also makes British fans even more nervous about Wiggins crashing out of Le Tour.

Right now, Wiggins has vaulted to the top of the Tour contender list, the only rider actually posting results on the way to Liege. He’s riding with exceptional confidence and total command of a powerful Sky squad. While the Brothers Schleck are back at “square one” and Cadel Evans is feeling “disappointed”, Wiggins is flying.

The list of potential rivals drops off fast after Evans and Schleck. Denis Menchov hasn’t managed much this season, Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), Samuel Sanchez (Euskatel-Euskadi) and Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Lotto-Belisol) can’t time trial. Tony Martin is the world champion against the clock but he just resumed training after being hit by a car.

In a Tour with over 100 kilometers in time trailing, Evans and Wiggins are in a class of their own. But when you factor in team strength, the battle tips in Wiggins’s favor. While Evans hopes to count on young Tejay Van Garderen in the Alps and Pyrenees, Sky will bring Richie Porte and Chris Froome and perhaps Michael Rodgers to give Wiggins a hand. BMC will have both Philippe Gilbert and Thor Hushovd, but they can’t begin to mach that kind of firepower in the mountains.

Everything has gone perfectly for Wiggins so far this season. His build-up couldn’t be more ideal, his confidence couldn’t be higher, his team couldn’t be much stronger. Anybody who listened to Wiggins’ press conference at the midway point in Romandie saw a rider so relaxed and self-assured it was, well, scary.

No wonder everybody in England is excited and terrified.

 

 

By |2019-02-03T16:09:24-08:00April 30th, 2012|Uncategorized|4 Comments

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4 Comments

  1. Alex April 30, 2012 at 11:40 am - Reply

    Yes, I’m in England and fairly terrified. To be honest, I’ve loved every minute of watching his spring campaign, but so many people only really care about the tour, that it would be great to see him do well there. I just want to see him really reach his potential.

    • walshworld May 1, 2012 at 8:21 am - Reply

      Alex, that’s what we all want — just to see what he can do if he doesn’t crash out. I pray he has good luck. Matt

  2. Sam April 30, 2012 at 11:40 am - Reply

    Remember that Team Sky will have to manage the aspirations of both Wiggins and Cavendish. No small task and, as has been mentioned before, no team has succeeded with these dual objectives in the modern era of the Tour. It may happen that both men attain results that satisfy each of them (was second in the Tour along with a bunch of stage wins satisfactory to Ulrich and Zabel? Perhaps for the Team Telecom bosses but probably not to each other…) but it will still make it difficult for both while the race unfolds. It will be interesting to see how Sky balances the desires of both riders.

    • walshworld May 1, 2012 at 8:20 am - Reply

      Sam, you got that right. There had to be a small part of Cavendish that was jealous and threatened by Wiggins’ success at Romandie. It just tips the team balance in France away from him. Wiggins has a real shot at the win and I think it’s going to be one of the biggest 2012 Tour stories — how SKy allocates resources. Matt

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