Darkglasses

Sky Sports News reporting that Wiggo is out of the TDF

Have heard it's due to a knee injury.

ZOINKS

Froome is doing the happy dance today

Cat4Lifer

2/3 who finished on the 2012 TDF podium will not be in France in July.
That sucks. Kinda like it sucked in '08. =\

Darkglasses

Conflicting reports say that his training isn't just badly, but that it's not going at all. Perhaps he's become a fatty?

Zinger

VeloNews says 2 to 3 weeks off altogether and he's out for the Tour alright.

MinnMan

There was a lot of talk about him being sick at the Giro, but this is the first I've heard about the knee. Anybody know just what is wrong with his knee? Some of those issues clear up quickly but some linger for a long time.

dblackwood72

He doesn't want to get embarrassed at the tour like he was getting at the Giro.... Respiratory infection, knee problem, blah blah... sounds like a bunch of excuses. He'll regroup and make a run at the Vuelta.

Froome was going to destroy him anyway... would look bad for a defending champion!

cthenn

This is probably so much more close to the truth than illness/knee whatever. The guy won ONE Tour on a course that he could not have hand picked better, and he's starting to think he's invincible. Proof is in him actually thinking he could win the Giro, which is far more tough than the Tour. It would have been better though for Froome, Contador, etc. to put him in his place, now he's just got a convenient excuse, and he can go on thinking he's actually one of the greats.

Caretaker

Whatever Bradley's problems are I hope he gets over them soon and starts racing again.

He's a very talented rider with a quirkey personality and that's what I like.

Whether he's 'great' or not I'll happily leave to the day he retires for good.

mprelaw

Which is why he probably won't even try to make a run at the Vuelta.

Ken Brown

I agree. There are GC contenders that I like better than Wiggins (actually, all of them), but I would like to see him racing and doing well (but not winning ).

99Klein 

He had his 15 minutes. Can't believe this is a surprise to anyone. Even last season he was done after the TODD.

dblackwood72

True...

Angio Graham

flame me all you want, but there are a lot of one hit wonders in cycling. that's why drugs or not, lance armstrongs 7 consecutive tour wins is amazing and will never be beaten.

Caretaker

Possibly.

Caretaker

You're ABSOLUTELY correct.

Those wins were amazing and will never be equalled, hopefully.

cycle17

I'm not a Lance fanboy but PEDs or not, I still consider him the winner of 7 TDF...

chasm54

Clearly you ARE a Lance fanboy, and a person of poor judgement. Please take your Lance eulogies to the Armstrong thread, and stop stinking out the rest of the forum.

Bacciagalupe

There was nothing exceptional about the 2012 route.


Err... wha? Nothing he's ever said or done indicates that he thinks he's "invincible." He's 33, he only has a few elite years left, and I'm sure he knows it. Neither Froome nor Wiggins can be blamed for locking horns over being ambitious enough to want to head up a top team in the most prestigious events in the calendar.


Whatever

Half of what makes a race difficult is the course. The other half is the competition. The Giro has had a more difficult course for the last few years, as the organizers have tried to spice it up. The competition is usually in the elite ranks, but not as tough as in Le Tour. And since this year's Tour route *cough* suits Froome more than Wiggins, it makes sense for Wiggins to focus on the other Grand Tour(s).

And who has won the last few Giros? Nibali, Hesjedal, Menchov, Basso. Wiggins certainly seems in the same cohort as them, and clearly beat Nibali in the 2012 TdF.

Hesjedal has also had a tough go since winning the Giro in 2012 -- he bombed out of both the 2012 TdF and 2013 Giro. None of this indicates that Hesjedal was somehow overrated or a bad rider, or didn't deserve his Giro win, or that he's making excuses.


I've never heard or seen Wiggins proclaim that he is one of "the greats" of the sport.

His road career has always been plagued by setbacks -- some of his own doing (e.g. not taking cycling seriously enough), and some not (crashing in 2011 TdF).

The bottom line is Wiggins won fair and square in 2012. It wasn't a fluke, and Wiggins was always going to spank Froome in the ITT's. It was a victory earned both by Team Sky and by Wiggins. Just get over it already.

Zinger

I was kind of hoping to see Wiggins and Contador in the same Tour myself.
No hate here for either.

slcbob

I would have like to see Wiggo show up to le Tour and work for Sky's leader with the same class that Froome did last year.

99Klein 

Yeah, pretty sure that would happen

Giacomo 1 

Well, Wiggins and his Sky mates won one of the most clinically professional Tour's ever. Yes, it was boring, but run perfectly.

If Cadel, Wiggins and the peloton have been riding clean for the last couple of years, then it might just go to show how tough it's going to be to ever see another repeat winner in the TDF or other major tour. Drugs very likely masked and hid the physical problems and energy lapses we're seeing today. Neither of these riders seem to have been able to bring themselves back into the proper condition, nor bring their teams back to that level again. We're likely to see alot more one-hit wonders in the coming years.

I think Froome has alot of weight on his shoulders and the question will be - can he hack it?

txags92

Is it really the fact that Wiggins is clean that is keeping him from repeating? Or the fact that Leinders is no longer one of the team docs working with him? We will never know...but those questions have to come up anytime we start discussing whether somebody won clean or not.

Caretaker

On this thread we haven't started, you have.