Bradley Wiggins

by John Deering

  The plan was to keep this nucleus together all the way through the spring right up to July. Team spirit would be strong. They would understand each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and they would always, but always, ride as a team. Marginal gains. Control the controllables. Team Sky were building a crack unit to win the yellow jersey and then protect it.

  Their first stop was the relatively low-key Volta ao Algarve in Portugal in an effort to find some warm weather in February. Edvald Boasson Hagen and then Richie Porte both won stages and wore the leader’s jersey. Porte’s stage win even involved a mountain top finish, which was a pleasing way of introducing himself to his new team. True to their word, Team Sky were riding as a unit, and it was powerful front running by Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome that had set up the Aussie’s win. The week ended with Brad pipping Tony Martin to take the time trial stage and Richie Porte finishing a couple of seconds back to keep the jersey and his first overall win for Sky. Not bad for a week’s work in February.

  They upped sticks for a much bigger challenge in France. Paris–Nice began much as it had the year before, with Brad finishing second in the time trial. This time he was only one second behind the winner, Swedish TT specialist Gustav Erik Larsson.

  Once upon a time, Brad had been caught out by crosswinds and had vowed it would never happen again. On Stage 2 of Paris–Nice the vanquished became victor, as it was he who saw the danger and led a select group away from the main field in a similar split to that day into La Grande Motte in 2009. There were still around 80km to go, but when Brad picked up two bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint with Larsson nowhere to be seen, stuck in the second or third echelon, the jersey was virtually guaranteed. Brad drove the group on almost single-handedly, catching the eye of Daniel Benson, who was there for cyclingnews.com: ‘At times he would accelerate from the front, creating a gap, before soft pedalling and allowing his companions to follow him once more. This is a rider at the peak of his game and Sky’s ambition of winning the Tour within five years, something they’ve publicly stepped back from in the last two years, now looks a distinct possibility.’

  Team Sky set about controlling the race and protecting their leader’s six-second lead. It didn’t sound much, but was a gulf, such was Wiggins’s form and the quality of his support. Alejandro Valverde tried to unseat the yellow jersey on the uphill Stage F4 finish into the Lot bastide town of Rodez, but Wiggins matched him without breaking stride. The pair were side by side in second and third the following day into Mende, where Vacansoleil’s Lieuwe Westra pipped them both and revealed himself to be the real danger on the stiff climb to the finish.

  Team Sky successfully protected his lead all the way to the final time trial, the ascent of the famous Col d’Eze above the glittering blue Mediterranean. Off last, wearing full skinsuit and time trial helmet in contrast to his less prepared rivals, Wiggins won the stage and the race, completing a thoroughly dominant performance. The nature of the win was perhaps even more important to the team than the fact that this was their biggest victory to date.

  From there it was down to the Volta a Catalunya, or Catalan Week as it used to be known in English-speaking parts. When snow hit the race on the third stage, Team Sky thought it best not to risk their star’s incredible form and withdrew him from the race. Brad’s training plan, under the watchful eye of personal coach Tim Kerrison, was based upon training more than racing, as Brad explains: ‘My coach has not been in cycling for long, he’s come from swimming, so I’ve pretty much been training like the swimmers train. I’ve been constantly training through the year, so it’s not like the traditional way for cycling, which is starting in January fat or in really bad condition, and then building, building and showing form in these races.’

  Sean Yates, Bradley Wiggins and Richie Porte headed to Mount Teide on Tenerife for the pre-summer training camp Team Sky had planned. It would be here over a punishing few weeks they would build the climbing power needed to overcome the high Alps and Pyrenees in the Tour de France. In the old days, Brad would have been heading for Tenerife for a few days in the sun and a few beers with his mates, but that was the Brad who couldn’t win the Tour de France.

  At 3,718 feet, Teide is the highest point in Spain, despite the fact that it’s a long way from mainland Europe. It’s a perfect place for altitude training, as it’s higher than virtually any European peaks and a lot dryer. It also has an amazing accommodation complex nestling in its valleys, and has become very popular with the Team Sky visitors.

  By May, Bradley Wiggins had only raced three times. He’d won a stage and finished third in one of them, won a stage and won the second race outright, and abandoned the third after two days due to a blizzard.

  Things were looking ominously good.

  STAGE 17:

  Bagnères-de-Luchon–Peyragudes, 143.5km

  Thursday, 19 July 2012

  It’s a rare day in modern grand tour racing when the riders are afforded the luxury of beginning a stage from the place they finished the night before. It’s a particular beef of the riders not often seen by the public, but transfers between stages are probably the least popular thing about long races.

  After the stage finish, when riders may be either boiling or soaking, there are a few formalities. If you have a rider in the leader’s jersey, in Team Sky’s case Bradley Wiggins, there will be a compulsory visit to the dope testers’ wagon immediately after the finish line, which involves a fight though the scrum of ever-present photographers and journalists. There are almost 5,000 people with media accreditation on this Tour de France, and it sometimes seems that every single one of them wants to push a microphone under Brad’s nose or a camera in his face at the same time.

  The jersey wearers and stage winner are then presented to the crowd and to a line-up of dignitaries resembling a provincial wedding at the side of the stage. Bernard Hinault will shake hands many times and the ludicrously anachronistic podium girls will kiss a lot of sweaty pink cheeks. Then there is a wait for the rest of the team to arrive. The autobus group of non-climbers regularly rolls in more than half an hour behind the leaders in the mountains.

  In days gone by, the riders would then squeeze into any remaining seats in the team cars and soigneurs’ people carriers to be driven off still in their kit, aching legs bunched up under dashboards or behind the driver’s seat. Being a team leader in the 1990s meant getting to sit in the front.

  Then there can be a drive of anything up to a couple of hours to the hotel, which will hopefully be situated close to tomorrow’s start. If only it could be close to the finish, too. With the race scheduled to finish between 4 p.m. and 4.30 p.m. each night, the traffic is often at its worst.

  Hence the advent of the bus. The bigger budget teams began using the luxury coach as a means of transport in the 1990s. Teams would often have two: one a genuine coach for the riders, the other functioning as a storage unit for bikes and the mechanics’ workshop.

  Things went to another level in 2010 when Team Sky arrived on the scene. Now, we wouldn’t want to suggest that professional cyclists are a shallow or immature bunch of folk, but there was only one topic of conversation around the peloton in the first weeks of that season – ‘Have you seen the Team Sky bus?!’

  As part of his legendary attention to detail and desire to make the smallest thing as good as it could possibly be, Dave Brailsford didn’t just buy a bus. He hired a man from Formula One to come and design the best one possible.

  Then he ordered two.

  The maximum number of riders for any one race is nine, so the bus has just nine seats in the riders’ cabin, affording them maximum room. The seats swivel inwards for presentations, team talks, or to watch videos on the HD screen that drops down behind the driver’s seat. The chairs themselves are deep leather armchairs with a console table hidden in the armrest that becomes a plush platform for a laptop or even – imagine! – a book. There are electronically controlled leg rests, inbuilt Bose headphones and, naturally, a Sky+ TV controlle
r.

  The section behind the mood-lit riders’ cabin contains the toilet and behind that the shower room with automatic frosted doors, and enough space for even Christian Knees and Ian Stannard to get their hair wet without bending over.

  The rear section houses a comfortable massage area that doubles as a lounge and meeting room when not in use. It is no surprise to find a state-of-the-art coffee machine available here.

  Underneath the top deck where all these features look proudly out through blacked-out glass on to the world below, a bank of washing machines and tumble driers restore dirty kit to pristine condition for the next day’s efforts.

  The best feature is saved until last. Picture the scene: five hours in the saddle in a rainstorm and it’s virtually dark when you finally squelch into the drenched finish area and through the line. There are a thousand vehicles parked in the vicinity and you’ve never been to this town in your life. How do you find the sanctuary of the bus? Have no fear. The Team Sky bus has an extendable rooftop antenna with a red beacon on top to guide you home.

  *

  The joy of finishing and starting in the same town is the glittering jewel in a morning filled with trepidation.

  ‘On paper, it doesn’t look as bad,’ says Bradley Wiggins of today’s stage. Compared to yesterday, maybe, but there are still four classified climbs to scale, including the impressive Port de Balès and the Peyresourde in the opposite direction to yesterday. Perhaps most dangerous of all to Wiggins and Chris Froome is the uphill finish at Peyragudes above the mountain’s peak. With such a short stage into which to cram all this activity, it’s certain there will be fireworks. Vincenzo Nibali will see today as his last opportunity to unseat one or other of the Team Sky dynamic duo and his attacking style makes it unlikely that he will accept defeat lying down.

  The early action on the stage concerns the fight for the climber’s jersey which will be decided today. Thomas Voeckler, not content with his brace of solo stage wins, wants the polka dot jersey to take home and is locked in battle with Astana’s Fredrik Kessiakoff. Voeckler took the jersey off him yesterday, but only four points separate them and Kessiakoff is determined to snatch it back. It makes for a ferocious battle over the beautiful passes of the Col de Menté and Col des Ares, then on to the formidable Port de Balès before Voeckler can truly lay claim to the jersey the whole of France is willing him to win.

  It’s on the Port de Balès that Liquigas-Cannondale show that they are going to make the pace again. It all starts to get a little bit uncomfortable at the sharp end of the race and the group thins quickly, but the favourites all maintain their places with the Peyresourde to come.

  It’s now or never as they begin to tackle the legendary slopes for the second time in two days. Riders who have been out in front of the yellow jersey group are gobbled up one after another like plankton in a whale’s mouth as the peloton’s relentless pace shows no sign of slowing. Lotto Belisol make their own move over the Liquigas-Cannondale and Team Sky-fronted group, as Jurgen Van Den Broeck uses his teammate Jelle Vanendert’s attack as a springboard for his own move. In fourth spot overall, one can only lament Van Den Broeck’s bad luck in the earlier part of this race when he lost crucial time to a mechanical fault: who knows what chaos he could have caused if he had been closer to Wiggins when the big mountains were reached? Similar to Nibali in his attacking mentality, having twin dangers for Team Sky to look out for could have made this a very different race.

  The Lotto Belisol attack has splintered the race and created a tiny group of only eight riders. Van Den Broeck is still there, as is Vincenzo Nibali and the Team Sky duo of Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome. Chris Horner of RadioShack-Nissan is hanging in there with the French stage winners Thibaut Pinot and Pierre Rolland. Cadel Evans hasn’t made the cut, but his BMC teammate in the white jersey of best young rider Tejay van Garderen has. He now sits above his leader in fifth spot with Evans one behind and losing time.

  Only the brave Alejandro Valverde remains ahead of this group from the earlier break which has led the way over today’s mountains. He is just over a minute in front but beginning to labour within sniffing distance of the line.

  Wiggins and Froome are cruising; the former with his back flat and high tempo spinning style, Froome more hunched but just as untroubled. They share a brief chat, gauging the state of the group around them. Wiggins senses that Nibali in particular is finding the pace hard to maintain after his Herculean efforts of the last few days. At Wiggins’s instigation, Froome takes up the pace.

  In a glorious moment that will remain with British cycling fans forever, the two men move clear together. Now they will win this amazing race – the Tour de France will be won by a Brit for the first time. Two of them will surely stand side by side on the podium in Paris where no man from these shores has ever stood before.

  The question remains: who will be on the top step? Or even, who deserves to be on the top step? While these two great teammates have proved beyond all doubt they are the strongest two riders in this race, the argument over who is the better of the two is far from being won. With Valverde looking likely to be reeled in as the pair fly up the last slopes to Peyragudes, Wiggins begins to lose touch with Chris Froome’s back wheel. Froome looks around and gestures towards Wiggins, but its meaning is difficult to decipher. Come on, Brad? Are you OK, Brad? Or, do I have to wait for you again, Brad? After a moment of daylight between them, hearts in mouths for all those watching, Froome pauses and allows his leader to rejoin him and they ride on proudly to the finish unchallenged. They arrive nineteen seconds after the ecstatic Valverde, but clear of their true rivals.

  They have conquered the Alps and the Pyrenees. The leader board looks like this:

  Bradley Wiggins GB (Team Sky)

  Chris Froome GB (Team Sky)

  2’05”

  Vincenzo Nibali Ita (Liquigas-Cannondale)

  2’41”

  Jurgen Van Den Broeck Bel (Lotto Belisol)

  5’53”

  Tejay van Garderen USA (BMC)

  8’30”

  Cadel Evans Aus (BMC)

  9’57”

  Haimar Zubeldia Spa (RadioShack-Nissan)

  10’11”

  Pierre Rolland Fra (Europcar)

  10’17”

  Janez Brajkovič Slo (Astana)

  11’00”

  Thibaut Pinot Fra (FDJ)

  11’44”

  The performance was greeted with unrestrained delight at Team Sky, but it wasn’t a sentiment universally shared. Many Tour followers and fans were of the opinion that the strongest man in this race was about to finish it in second place. The exchange between the first- and second-placed riders in the final moments of the stage, allied to that memory of Froome being made to wait for Wiggins at La Toussuire, has given the theorists much to talk about.

  Laurent Jalabert, former world number one and a Tour de France legend said on French TV, ‘It wasn’t a grand gesture. You don’t do that between teammates. I think it darkens the triumph of Wiggins.’

  Brad, for his part, was self-critical, explaining that a dangerous belief that the race was won had caught him in a moment’s reverie: ‘I heard on the radio that we were alone, just the two of us. I just lost concentration and started thinking a lot of things. In that moment all the fight went out of the window, everything to do with performance.’

  Froome may well have been frustrated that their late deceleration cost him a second mountain stage victory in this Tour. With Valverde just seconds up the road he had been forced – either by instructions or by his own commitment to duty – to slow and allow the courageous but tiring Spaniard to hold on to his narrow lead.

  Wiggins seems to agree with that synopsis at the finish, when he simply says, ‘Chris really wanted to win the stage today.’

  So, what do you think? Who deserves to win this race? Let us assume for a moment that Team Sky had not been able to keep Chris Froome after the disappointment of last year’s Vuelta and he had come into this ra
ce as a rival of Wiggins on another squad. The first thing to recognise is that it would have had to be a damn fine team to challenge the dominance that Team Sky have displayed throughout this race. Even without Froome’s climbing talent, they could call upon remarkable assistance via Richie Porte and Mick Rogers et al, even without Kanstantsin Siutsou. There was no room on this team for riders like Geraint Thomas or Rigoberto Urán Urán either, both of whom would be expected to make sterling contributions to the team effort.

  Or maybe Team Sky would have spent the money they’d saved on Froome on a replacement? What price for a Van Den Broeck joining their ranks? Or a Luis Leon Sanchez? Or Egoi Martínez? Or Joaquim Rodriguez?

  It cannot be denied that Froome has had two moments in the mountains where he has dropped Wiggins. What is uncertain is whether he could have made those gaps stick if he had truly been a rival. One characteristic that Bradley Wiggins shares with his idol Miguel Indurain is the almost total lack of a jump, a quick acceleration to make an attack or cover one. He responds to moves by staying calm and gradually lifting his own tempo until he rides himself back into contention. Putting a bike length into him halfway up a climb is no guarantee of dropping him by the top.

  Then there is the time trial. Brilliant as Froome has proved against the clock in this race, can he really be expected to make up his losses to Wiggins in this department? He would need to not just beat Brad in the mountains, he would need to cane him to ensure the losses he would be bound to sustain in the time trial would be absorbed.

  Finally, and crucially, there is the experience of knowing how to lead a team and lead a race. Bradley Wiggins has won the respect and devotion of his teammates by delivering them the victories they have grafted for at the Dauphiné, the Tour de Romandie and Paris–Nice. He has learned to soak up the pressure that dressing daily in the yellow of race leader brings to all who dare to dream of victory. And in this race he has demonstrated the wise kingship of a considerate leader in his treatment of Evans, Nibali and the whole race. Even Indurain became something of a rabbit in the headlights on his first grand tour as leader when Pedro Delgado stood aside for him in the Vuelta a España only to see the lieutenant-that-was-too-good-to-be-a-lieutenant stutter in the spotlight of responsibility.