It was always
going to be a showdown not to be missed. Two superbly matched rivals, competing
at the top of their game. Bradley Wiggins and Cadel Evans, vying for the Tour
de France crown.
But with the first week of the Tour de France behind us, it begs the question: has Wiggins blinked already? In the silent psychological battle raging between the Briton and the Australian, has Wiggins inadvertently lost the advantage to the defending champion?
It began on Stage 1. As the teams raced towards the finish and the dangerous last few kilometres of the stage, Team Sky was nowhere to be seen, leaving Wiggins to fend for himself in the peloton and try and stay out of trouble. Wiggins was seriously displeased with his team’s lack of support and had words with them at the end of the day, causing them to be far more attentive on Stage 2. Already the team was in the black books.
It got worse on Stage 3. A crash took out Wiggins’ Sky teammate, Kanstantin Sivtsov, and suddenly Sky was one rider down with a team of eight – the first team to lose a man. It hasn’t helped that the World Champion, Manxman Mark Cavendish, is now racing for Team Sky and has been pressuring the team for more and more support in his quest for stage victories. Even Norwegian champion Edvald Boasson Hagen was too busy sprinting for stage placings or leading out Cavendish to look out for Wiggins. The team is slowly fracturing between the individual goals of its members. The line-up that was initially the most formidable in the Tour de France is now looking like Wiggins’ biggest weakness.
A touch-and-go team is one thing, but Wiggins himself seems to know that he’s already on the back foot strategically as well. On Stage 3 Wiggins employed a rather reprehensible tactic saved only for the desperate. He maintained his position in the GC that day after all time gaps in the front half of the peloton were neutralised due to a crash in the last few hundred metres of the stage. But here’s the kicker: Wiggins had nothing to do with the crash.
Wiggins was riding a fair way down the peloton and was going to lose time on rival Cadel Evans, who was racing for a placing behind Peter Sagan. So when a Vacansoleil rider crashed over to Wiggins’ left, instead of veering right to go around it, Wiggins turned his bike left into teammate Michael Rogers and forced both of them to stop behind the crash. It wasn’t an accident. Wiggins’s intention was clear. The road in front of him is open, but instead he leans left into Rogers, slows and puts his foot on the ground. The tactic worked. Commissaires deemed Wiggins and Rogers impeded by the crash and awarded them the same time as Evans.
Leaving aside the moral implications of such a strategy, the real question is: why was it necessary? To put it simply, they made a mistake. Wiggins and Team Sky slipped up. Sky should have done what BMC did and moved Wiggins up to the front of the peloton, clear of crashes and time losses. Sky’s failure meant that Wiggins had to get creative in order to ensure he stayed in competition and didn’t surrender any advantage to Evans.
Small potatoes, perhaps, but this year’s Tour de France was always going to be about the small stuff. Consider Cadel Evans’ Tour de France so far: he’s raced the perfect opening week, remains as calm as the proverbial eye of the storm, and in general is looking just like the Cadel Evans we remember from last year – the Cadel who won the Tour de France. It’s true that Wiggins is making up for missed time in the second week of the Tour, dominating in the Stage 9 individual time trial and gaining precious seconds over Evans. That doesn’t change the fact that Wiggins’ opening week doesn’t look nearly as sparkly, and it’s worth asking the question – has Wiggins already made a critical mistake?
But with the first week of the Tour de France behind us, it begs the question: has Wiggins blinked already? In the silent psychological battle raging between the Briton and the Australian, has Wiggins inadvertently lost the advantage to the defending champion?
It began on Stage 1. As the teams raced towards the finish and the dangerous last few kilometres of the stage, Team Sky was nowhere to be seen, leaving Wiggins to fend for himself in the peloton and try and stay out of trouble. Wiggins was seriously displeased with his team’s lack of support and had words with them at the end of the day, causing them to be far more attentive on Stage 2. Already the team was in the black books.
It got worse on Stage 3. A crash took out Wiggins’ Sky teammate, Kanstantin Sivtsov, and suddenly Sky was one rider down with a team of eight – the first team to lose a man. It hasn’t helped that the World Champion, Manxman Mark Cavendish, is now racing for Team Sky and has been pressuring the team for more and more support in his quest for stage victories. Even Norwegian champion Edvald Boasson Hagen was too busy sprinting for stage placings or leading out Cavendish to look out for Wiggins. The team is slowly fracturing between the individual goals of its members. The line-up that was initially the most formidable in the Tour de France is now looking like Wiggins’ biggest weakness.
A touch-and-go team is one thing, but Wiggins himself seems to know that he’s already on the back foot strategically as well. On Stage 3 Wiggins employed a rather reprehensible tactic saved only for the desperate. He maintained his position in the GC that day after all time gaps in the front half of the peloton were neutralised due to a crash in the last few hundred metres of the stage. But here’s the kicker: Wiggins had nothing to do with the crash.
Wiggins was riding a fair way down the peloton and was going to lose time on rival Cadel Evans, who was racing for a placing behind Peter Sagan. So when a Vacansoleil rider crashed over to Wiggins’ left, instead of veering right to go around it, Wiggins turned his bike left into teammate Michael Rogers and forced both of them to stop behind the crash. It wasn’t an accident. Wiggins’s intention was clear. The road in front of him is open, but instead he leans left into Rogers, slows and puts his foot on the ground. The tactic worked. Commissaires deemed Wiggins and Rogers impeded by the crash and awarded them the same time as Evans.
Leaving aside the moral implications of such a strategy, the real question is: why was it necessary? To put it simply, they made a mistake. Wiggins and Team Sky slipped up. Sky should have done what BMC did and moved Wiggins up to the front of the peloton, clear of crashes and time losses. Sky’s failure meant that Wiggins had to get creative in order to ensure he stayed in competition and didn’t surrender any advantage to Evans.
Small potatoes, perhaps, but this year’s Tour de France was always going to be about the small stuff. Consider Cadel Evans’ Tour de France so far: he’s raced the perfect opening week, remains as calm as the proverbial eye of the storm, and in general is looking just like the Cadel Evans we remember from last year – the Cadel who won the Tour de France. It’s true that Wiggins is making up for missed time in the second week of the Tour, dominating in the Stage 9 individual time trial and gaining precious seconds over Evans. That doesn’t change the fact that Wiggins’ opening week doesn’t look nearly as sparkly, and it’s worth asking the question – has Wiggins already made a critical mistake?
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