Wiggins: From Boy Racer To Tour Champion

Aoxomoxoa said:
One of the greatest days ever in the history of the Tour de France and predictably nothing.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/ar...ains-best-athlete-Martin-Samuel.html?ITO=1490
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You mean "One of the greatest day for British Cycling.". The Brits are late new commers to the recent dominance of pro cycling by English language teams/riders so though hats off to Wiggo for a brilliant performance, this is hardly earth shattering for cycling fans outside the UK. Don't get me wrong, it's a hell of an accomplishment. This is one of the most difficult, if not the most difficult, sporting event in the world to win.

To be honest with you. I'm far more impressed with team Sky than with Wiggo. Wiggo ran a damn good race but lets be honest. He ran against a relatively weak field by tour standards. No Contador, No Schleck brothers. No other riders of the caliber of an Armstrong, Pantani, Indurain or Ulrich. The second best rider was on his own team. Nibali was no threat and Evans, though a tough competitor is 36 years old and hardly in the class of a Contador.

What was impressive about this win was Team Sky. This was the best all around team I've seen in the tour Since La Vie Claire of 86. Though not nearly as good as the 86 La Vie Claire Team that was the most dominating peroformance by a GC winning team in Le Tour since 86 and that included Banesto and US Postal/Discovery Channel.

Oh yea, if I'm a betting man for the Olympic Road race my money is on Mark Cavendish as he'll have two of the best lead out men (Wiggo and Frome). That is if he can hang for 150 miles. He did it in the Worlds so no reason he can't do it in the Olympics though at this distance and with less team play involved it could go to a strong break away rider.
 
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Mott the Hoople said:
You mean "One of the greatest day for British Cycling.". The Brits are late new commers to the recent dominance of pro cycling by English language teams/riders so though hats off to Wiggo for a brilliant performance, this is hardly earth shattering for cycling fans outside the UK. Don't get me wrong, it's a hell of an accomplishment. This is one of the most difficult, if not the most difficult, sporting event in the world to win.

To be honest with you. I'm far more impressed with team Sky than with Wiggo. Wiggo ran a damn good race but lets be honest. He ran against a relatively weak field by tour standards. No Contador, No Schleck brothers. No other riders of the caliber of an Armstrong, Pantani, Indurain or Ulrich. The second best rider was on his own team. Nibali was no threat and Evans, though a tough competitor is 36 years old and hardly in the class of a Contador.

What was impressive about this win was Team Sky. This was the best all around team I've seen in the tour Since La Vie Claire of 86. Though not nearly as good as the 86 La Vie Claire Team that was the most dominating peroformance by a GC winning team in Le Tour since 86 and that included Banesto and US Postal/Discovery Channel.

Oh yea, if I'm a betting man for the Olympic Road race my money is on Mark Cavendish as he'll have two of the best lead out men (Wiggo and Frome). That is if he can hang for 150 miles. He did it in the Worlds so no reason he can't do it in the Olympics though at this distance and with less team play involved it could go to a strong break away rider.
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We shall see but I happen to think that those guys will come to be seen as the greatest team ever. That doesn't take away in the least my admiration for Lance Armstrong though but where are the others to take his place?
 
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Aoxomoxoa said:
We shall see but I happen to think that those guys will come to be seen as the greatest team ever. That doesn't take away in the least my admiration for Lance Armstrong though but where are the others to take his place?
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Time will tell but they have a long, long, long way to go to even rival the 86 La Vie Claire team. So far team Sky has a grand total of 1 rider with a grand tour win (Wiggo). La Vie Claire team riders had a total of 14 Grand tour wins in their careers including 8 Tour de France wins.

86 La Vie Claire had Bernard Hinault, Greg LeMond, Andy Hampston and Niki Ruttiman on the team. The leaders on team Sky are Wiggo, Frome, Cavendish and Boasen Haagen. No one on Team Sky even remotely compares to Hinault or Lemond. Frome and Wiggo both compare favorably to Andy Hampston, particularly Frome. Wiggo definately is better than Hampston, particularly in time trialing. La Vie Claire, however, did not have a sprinter in Mark Cavendish's league.

Comparing the two Tours.

In 86 La Vie Claire had:

4 Riders in the top ten of the GC. Lemond #1. Hinault #2. Hampston #4. and Ruttiman #7.
Team Sky had two: #1 Wiggins, #2. Frome.

La Vie Claire had two riders in the top ten in sprinter points. #3. Hinault. #4. Lemond.
Team Sky had 4 riders in the top ten in points #4. Cavendish, #5 Boasen Haagen, #6. Wiggins, #7. Frome.

La Vie Claire had 3 riders in the top ten in the Mountain Classification. #1. Hinault, #3 Lemond, #4 Hampston
Team Sky had one. #6 Frome.

Here's the one that really shows how much better La Vie Claire was. While defending the Yellow Jersey they also won the team classification by nearly two hours! (1:51).
Team Sky finished second in the team catatory to Radio Shack by +5 minutes.

Then there were the Major Jersey's. La Vie Claire won all the major jerseys in 86 except the Green sprinter/points jersey.
Lemond - Yellow and Combo
Hinault - Polka Dot and Combo
Hampstion - White

Team Sky won one.

Yellow - Wiggins.

So though Teams Sky was the best single year performance by a team since 86 they were no where near as dominant as the 86 La Vie Claire Team.
 
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Mott the Hoople said:
Time will tell but they have a long, long, long way to go to even rival the 86 La Vie Claire team. So far team Sky has a grand total of 1 rider with a grand tour win (Wiggo). La Vie Claire team riders had a total of 14 Grand tour wins in their careers including 8 Tour de France wins.

86 La Vie Claire had Bernard Hinault, Greg LeMond, Andy Hampston and Niki Ruttiman on the team. The leaders on team Sky are Wiggo, Frome, Cavendish and Boasen Haagen. No one on Team Sky even remotely compares to Hinault or Lemond. Frome and Wiggo both compare favorably to Andy Hampston, particularly Frome. Wiggo definately is better than Hampston, particularly in time trialing. La Vie Claire, however, did not have a sprinter in Mark Cavendish's league.

Comparing the two Tours.

In 86 La Vie Claire had:

4 Riders in the top ten of the GC. Lemond #1. Hinault #2. Hampston #4. and Ruttiman #7.
Team Sky had two: #1 Wiggins, #2. Frome.

La Vie Claire had two riders in the top ten in sprinter points. #3. Hinault. #4. Lemond.
Team Sky had 4 riders in the top ten in points #4. Cavendish, #5 Boasen Haagen, #6. Wiggins, #7. Frome.

La Vie Claire had 3 riders in the top ten in the Mountain Classification. #1. Hinault, #3 Lemond, #4 Hampston
Team Sky had one. #6 Frome.

Here's the one that really shows how much better La Vie Claire was. While defending the Yellow Jersey they also won the team classification by nearly two hours! (1:51).
Team Sky finished second in the team catatory to Radio Shack by +5 minutes.

Then there were the Major Jersey's. La Vie Claire won all the major jerseys in 86 except the Green sprinter/points jersey.
Lemond - Yellow and Combo
Hinault - Polka Dot and Combo
Hampstion - White

Team Sky won one.

Yellow - Wiggins.

So though Teams Sky was the best single year performance by a team since 86 they were no where near as dominant as the 86 La Vie Claire Team.
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It is all about potential and they have it in spades!!
 
Aoxomoxoa said:
It is all about potential and they have it in spades!!
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That they do and in spades. Time will tell. Wiggins is a bit long in the tooth for a road cyclist so the mantle in the future may switch to Frome. Us Americans have something to look forward to also. Van Garderen was very impressive and probably could have finished on the podium had he not had to work for Evans. Only 23 to boot. He's shown he can time trial and climb.
 
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