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Bradley Wiggins Pulls Out Of "le Tour"

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mushroom25 | 09:00 Fri 06th Jun 2014 | Sport
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/27729769

he says despite his form the team are concentrating on Chris Froome, but he recognizes it's a team sport and Chris is defending champion.

so if it's a team sport, why isn't he riding and supporting his team?

nah sir Bradley, you're having a sulk aren't you?
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Oh yes.
I never thought he'd actually be a domestique for Froome!
Doesn't sound good or put him in a good light. Froome had to support wiggins for him to win in 2012 but he won't repay the favour. Sounds like a bit of a diva strop to me.
Well, 6 weeks ago he was banging on about how much he wanted to be part of the team for the TdF.
As much as I admire him as the first Briton to win it, he does seem to discard the toys from the pram whenever he's not the team leader.
The blurb would suggest that Brailsford has told him that despite his recent win in the Tour of California he still doesn't figure in the team for the TdF.
Should anything happen to Froome, Team Sky would still have Richie Porte and our own Geraint Thomas who could realistically go for GC, which would mean Wiggo being a domestique and nothing more.
Sad it's all gone a bit Pete Tong, especially as we've got the Grand Depart here too.
I'd forgotten about the Yorkshire start, a bit embarrassing then that he's pulled out.
The more I read it, the more it sounds like it's a Brailsford decision. The next 24 hours will tell us a lot more I believe.
The link has been updated and there is an interview with Wiggo.
It is clear that the decision has been taken out of his hands and has been made by Dave Brailsford. There is an outside chance that he could still make the team, but that would be at the expense of another.
I honestly thought that his recent success and willingness to be a super-domestique might see him there as I'm sure he'd pull out all the stops with it kicking off in the UK.
The REAL reason Sir Bradders won't be at the Tour is because the Salad Chef known as Chris Froome has blocked him, he's calling all the shots at Sky, not Brailsford. Brailsford is just Froomes lackey now. On Sir Bradder's recent form he represented a potential but very threat to Froome and his acclaim of the tour in UK. Sir Bradders is a cycling icon in the UK how many of the non cycling public have ever heard of Froome, he's a joke.

They blocked him from the Giro and now the Tour, Wiggo will leave Sky as soon as he can get away, Sky is all about Froome now, wait till the end of the season and watch the exodus
PS...don't expect any support for Geriant Thomas either he's one of Brad's gang and is looking at a way out of Sky as we speak. FROOME HAS DESTROYED TEAM Sky
Not for the first time he's being in a sulky strop. If he can't be King of the castle and the centre of all attention, he's just not interested. He doesn't come across as a team player in any way.
To call the winner of the Tour de France and the Ventoux stage to boot 'a joke' is stretching it a bit!

As for:
PS...don't expect any support for Geriant Thomas either he's one of Brad's gang and is looking at a way out of Sky as we speak.

That may be if he is to realise his GC ambitions but I've no doubt he's as loyal to Froome as he is Wiggo, otherwise he wouldn't have completed last year's TdF with a fractured pelvis, would he? Would have been far easier to give up after the crash on Day 1 but he stuck it out, such is his demeanour.
Too much has been made of the Froome/Wiggins spat which is now put to bed IMHO and as they're now both TdF winners it's only fair they go with the GC contender who has form at the moment, and Froome shades it.
Froome would want the 8 strongest guys with him, as would Brailsford, that's just the way it is.
If he is sulking then perhaps he should take up acting.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/27729737
It's not that JB, he knew if he was going to the tour this year it was in a support role he knows he can't beat Froome on the climbs, it was wjhat the team had promised if he had the form. He's won more than Froome this year and been better all year so far, he earned his spot. all this is is a mega PR disaster from team Sky
You're missing the point of the polemics within Team Sky right now Chilldout, it's all about Froome, there is no team. For G to realise ANY ambitions he has to move and he will.

I've seen this happen before on occasions during the last 35 years of obsessing about bike racing, 1986 Lemond/Hinault was one of them. Armstrong refused to take Cedric Vasseur to the TDF in 01 because he'd shown some form in a Time Trial, its all there is you want to look.

While Brad and Brailsford were holding the helm of Sky ship it was great it's gone now. brailsford quit his role at British Cycling to concentrate on Team Sky....he wanted the control back, he's failed.
IMHO Brailsford has the same dilemma as Mercedes currently have with Hamilton and Rosberg.
Bradley had it all his own way 2 years ago and the team was built around him specifically for that TdF.
He was given everything for the Giro the year after but was by his own standards less than average.
He does have a propensity for chucking the toys when it's not all going his way, whereas Froome appears to dig in and get on with it, without the sulks.
He's now 34 so has limited time left, but surely he knows that. Froome is 29 and on fire, so Sky have to go with him.
Thomas has to make up his own mind if he is to realise his GC ambitions. That said, Sky have the firepower to got for GC every year in the Grand Tours for the next 5 years, the riders just have to decide amongst themselves which they're going to go for and in which order, IMHO.
Sky have just had a pretty lacklustre outing in the Giro d'Italia (granted they didn't have the full A team) and with so much dosh thrown at the Sky enterprise, the overlords now badly need results. Like it or not, a racing team is like a ship and can only have ONE captain.
For Wiggins, quitting while he's ahead; - first British tour winner and a knighthood to boot, is perhaps not such a bad idea.
//IMHO Brailsford has the same dilemma as Mercedes currently have with Hamilton and Rosberg.//

The mainstream cycling media suggested this but the better cycling journos (rather than the sychophants) don't think so it's more like I've said already, Froome is calling the shots.

//Bradley had it all his own way 2 years ago and the team was built around him specifically for that TdF. He was given everything for the Giro the year after but was by his own standards less than average. He does have a propensity for chucking the toys when it's not all going his way, whereas Froome appears to dig in and get on with it, without the sulks.
He's now 34 so has limited time left, but surely he knows that. Froome is 29 and on fire, so Sky have to go with him. //

Read this.... from my ultimate cycling hero.... http://www.cyclingnews.com/blogs/robert-millar/robert-millar-blog-man-down

To suggest Froome has been on fire this year is a nonsense, he's done nothing apart from straightforward Romandie whereas Wiggins has been competing at the top since the beginning of the year. As for who is the real arrogant prima donna, try and get a read at Froome's new autobiography... it's comedy gold. He may not have a team to ride with soon based on the way he's crapping on team mates from a very high height.

//Thomas has to make up his own mind if he is to realise his GC ambitions. //

Moving is inevitable because he's a bright guy and can see the writing on the wall. He's been promised Classics back up for the last three seasons but he's had nothing coming in to help at a seriously strong domestique level. As Robert Millar says the ingredients that built Sky are now being thrown away.

//That said, Sky have the firepower to got for GC every year in the Grand Tours for the next 5 years, the riders just have to decide amongst themselves which they're going to go for and in which order, IMHO. //
Which is fine unless Alberto Contador hammers him this year or Nairo Quintana hands him his backside next year or Fabio Aru the following year.... or that Kerrisons training regimens actually kills one of them.

Sky will lose more and more of the riders and the "Britishness" of team Brailsford and Sky wanted and built.

Froome's rise has been clouded by hearsay and allegation about drugs and many other things. His latest blinder is a timed climb up the Col de Madone in France, Armstrong's favourite climb where he recorded numbers that are physiologically impossible according to all medical science, a 66kg rider producing 495 watts for over 30 minutes giving a watts/Kg of 6.95......Armstrong NEVER bettered 6.6W/KG at the height of his doping prowess........

PS, I'm not a massive fan of Wiggo but I have nothing but the utmost respect for his achievements and the inspirational way he's gone about what he's done.
The mainstream cycling media suggested this but the better cycling journos (rather than the sychophants) don't think so it's more like I've said already, Froome is calling the shots.
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In EXACTLY the same manner as Wiggins did 2 years ago, yes?
As for the rest, I'll take it with a massive pinch of salt as you've obviously got some sort of axe to grind with Froome.
I'll just go so far as to say he appears to train as hard as anyone else, has trained at altitude for a long time, slept out on mountains etc and is the most vocal when it comes to anti-doping, even telling the UCI they're not going far enough.
As Khandro says, Froome is currently the alpha male at Sky, it was Wiggo 2 years ago. Froome may get an injury, crash or suffer from his bilharzia, then Geraint or Richie Porte may get thrust forward as the 'go to' man.
At the end of the day, someone has to be the leader.
Brad has had his time, now it's Froomes and it'll possibly be someone elses in a year or two.
C'est la vie.
No, disagree... the team was way different in 2012, Froome ignored his agreements with the team, not directly with Wiggins though he did get hacked off with it as did the rest of them, did you see some of the footage or interviews with Sean Yates???

I don't have a specific axe to grind but in Froome I see something that fooled cycling fans before and I don't like that. Anyway there a better riders with more personality and way more panache out there well worth watching. We're each entitled to our opinions I've built mine about pro cycling over the last 35 years and unfortunately I've always been proved right....

Which is fine unless Alberto Contador hammers him this year or Nairo Quintana hands him his backside next year or Fabio Aru the following year.... or that Kerrisons training regimens actually kills one of them.
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Well, Froome did well enough in the Dauphine today, beating Contador into second on the summit finish so he's doing ok.

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