Seeing the pictures on the newly launched Team Sky official website (the supporters site here is well worth a look too by the way) started me dreaming… could this year be the year a Briton wins the Tour de France?
My initial thoughts were sadly not. Despite the clearly glitzy launch (which no doubt Dave and Tony are enjoying a prawn sandwich at right now!!) I cannot see where the riders are to support Bradley Wiggins to the yellow jersey are.
In addition I cannot see where he will gain time on Contador, or certainly enough of it to defend his position in the mountains.
So for me Bradley will not be a grand tour winner in 2010.
12 thoughts on “Will Bradley Wiggins win the Tour dr France?”
No prawn sandwiches for me.
No prawn sandwiches for me. someone’s got to sit on the turbo trainer generator that keeps the site going. ‘pedal powered’ isn’t just a clever strapline you know 🙂
gutted!!!
So has Tony gone
gutted!!!
So has Tony gone then?
yes indeed. he’s probably
yes indeed. he’s probably hobnobbing with wiggo et al right now.
I would love to see Wiggo
I would love to see Wiggo climb onto the podium but I just cant see it, as JTC suggests, sky just dont seem to have the firepower he enjoyed as support at Garmin. Time will tell though.
yeah, Wiggo is at the table
yeah, Wiggo is at the table opposite in the “media area” apparently there going to be a lot less shooting from the hip now he’s at Sky… I’ll save some space on the recorder then
That was just after some
That was just after some bloke from one of the big papers asked him if he was going to win the Tour this year… apparently he might was the gist, to be fair the emphasis seemed to be more on the ‘might’
Missed the prawn sandwiches
Missed the prawn sandwiches JTC, but there is an excellent selection of cakes…
I would have thought that
I would have thought that Boasson Hagen is a better bet for GC than Wiggins. He will be missing some major support from the likes of Millar, Vande Velde, Zabriskie and Martin who all know their way around a Grand Tour.
Froome…
… remember where
Froome…
… remember where you heard it first.
(or maybe second as I must have read it somewhere to have arrived at this conclusion!)
I think Team Sky will learn
I think Team Sky will learn quickly. And the management are in the kind of scientific mode that Lance has had behind him. If they get the mould right, you just never know, and Wiggo is certainly someone the younger lads will be able to learn off.
And who says Astana will be able to support Contador without the support he’s had in the past? Although his sheer ability up the mountains will be difficult to beat.
I agree that Twiggo doesn’t
I agree that Twiggo doesn’t have the team around him to win. Team Sky can talk as big and bad as they want but they really don’t have the depth of team to help carry a guy through the Tour at the top of the GC – and it’s their first year and with all the hoopla about Team Sky, the peloton is going to be watching them very carefully. I think it’s strange that everyone seems to think Sky are going to sweep every race they’re in! I believe they’ll have a harder adjustment than they think.
For the Tour they’re going against Contador (who won last year without Astana’s help, he can very well do it again); RadioShack (you can never ever discount Lance, no matter how old and unexplosive he is in the mountains – he has cunning and guile to carry him a long way); and SaxoBank with the Schlecks, who have the mighty Jens Voight and the phenomenal Cancellara (be still my beating heart) to put down the hurt before the climbers do their stuff. Add to that, a rider that comes out of nowhere to surprise us (there’s always one!) and then there’s Garmin.
Although I don’t see VandeVelde as a real contender, Twiggo said some ungracious things (the ‘playing for Wigan’ comment) about a team that only ever supported him when he was nothing on the road. I’m not a Garmin fan at all but I thought the whole ‘will he won’t he, I will, I won’t, oh look, I did’ garbage that was played out before he signed was pretty ridiculous. Garmin seem to hold grudges so I wonder if they will try to hinder his chances like they did when they were ordered to chase down Hincapie so that he couldn’t take the yellow jersey during one of the stages last year. Just a thought. The peloton can be harsh …
I doubt very much if he’ll
I doubt very much if he’ll win it but it would be nice to see him on the podium somewhere. I don’t think he’s ready for a Grand tour win yet anyway. Same goes for Cav.