Tag: tour de france 2012

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Bradley Wiggins: Tour de Force

Bradley Wiggins Tour de Force

Bradley Wiggins: Tour de Force by John Deering - Team SkyHard to move without bumping into another book on Bradley Wiggins – his autobiography, My Time, is out, as is an update of his In Pursuit of Glory, and the official Team Sky’s 21 Days to Glory. Then there are the books Richard Moore, Daniel Friebe, Press Association Sports, et al. Britain’s first ever Tour de France winner and Olympic hero is certainly proving a gift to publishers… We have to assume the collective noun for these is ‘a peloton’ and amongst this bunch we find Bradley Wiggins: Tour de Force by John Deering, a regular contributor to Eurosport’s cycling coverage, Procycling and The Official Tour de France Guide. The fact that Deering has arguably nabbed the best title for his book reveals something of the tabloid headline nature of his book, but where it succeeds is in perfectly balancing biographic history with a virtual day-by-day account of Wiggins’ 2012 Tour de France battle, thus splicing together several of the other viral titles available.

 

Deering pulls off his trick by alternating chapters between breathless present tense details of the TdF with stories of Wiggins’ childhood and rise through the ranks. Whilst the latter is really better detailed in Wiggins’ own books and words, Deering’s blow-by-blow of the Tour is both evocative and perfect for those looking to learn more about the machinations of team tactics and minutiae of life on the road. If you can forgive the tabloidisms (‘He kisses the podium girls with the relaxed confidence of a former lover’) then Tour de Force is a rewarding read that ranks amongst the best on its subject.

 

Bradley Wiggins: Tour de Force by John Deering is published by Birlinn Ltd, £12.99 RRP paperback (ISBN-10: 1780271034) and £8.15 Kindle Edition. Available from Amazon.co.uk

 

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Sky’s The Limit

When, a few short years ago, Team Sky announced they intended to put together the greatest pro squad in the world it perhaps seemed like hyperbole. Yesterday in Paris they had undeniably achieved their ambition with a record breaking fourth Champs-Élysées finishing sprint from Mark Cavendish and a team overall standings 1-2 for Wiggins and Froome to deliver up the first ever British winner of the Tour de France. Whilst the inevitable winner would usually regard and ride the final leg as a victory lap, Wiggins, along with his team mates, dug deep to help propel World Champion Cavendish to victory in one of the most highly anticipated and nail-biting finishes in le Tour’s 109 year history.

 

Cavendish was, of course, full of praise for his team mates, saying, ‘It’s incredible what we’ve achieved today – what a team. We got a one and two on GC but still we were riding to control things on the Champs-Elysees. It was an honour to have the yellow jersey leading me out. Bradley told me he’d go full gas to the last kilometre and then Edvald (Boasson Hagen) led me into the last corner. The finish couldn’t have been more perfect – no better end to this Tour.’

 

For his part, a post-race and jubilant Wiggins commented, ‘I’ve had 24 hours for this to soak in and today we were just on a mission to finish the job off with Cav. So job done and what a way for him to finish it off. I’m still buzzing. I’ve got to get used to going into the history books now, but I’m just trying to take everything in today first. It’s very surreal at the moment because this type of things [usually] happens to other people. You never imagine it happening to yourself…. It’s hard to take in as it happens. Every lap of the Champs-Elysees was goose-pimple stuff. We had a job to do with Mark today and we were all motivated to do that so it made it go a lot quicker. The concentration was high and for Mark to finish it off like that, well, it couldn’t get any better.’

 

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Wiggins Wins le Tour

‘Bring it on’ said Bradley Wiggins before this year’s Tour de France. Well, he came, he toured, he conquered; today becoming the first Britain ever to win the greatest cycling race in the world. The Team Sky rider finished in an overall time of 87h 34′ 42” – surely one of the greatest British sporting achievements of all time. Of course with success at yesterday’s Time Trial and with so much of this year’s event spent in yellow, victory today was all-bar an accident guaranteed for Wiggo, but that didn’t stop almost a million spectators in Paris cheering home the man they have dubbed ‘le gentleman’.

 

Chris Froome made it an amazing Team Sky 1-2 with a second place podium finish just 3”21’ adrift, whilst Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas Cannondale) took third place, 6’19” behind Wiggins. Adding to Sky’s almost unbelievable success at this year’s TdF World Champion Mark Cavendish won today’s stage, at 120km the shortest of the year, with a faultless sprint finish – making this a record breaking four straight Champs-Élysées wins for the Manx rider.

 

It might be all over for another year at the TdF, but for Wiggins, Cavendish and Froome the next stop is the London Olympics. Too soon to say things are looking good for a medal or two?

 

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Manx Missile Launches

Mark Cavendish unleashed a devastating display of speed at the Tour de France in a sprint finish to win today’s  222.5km leg from Blagnac to Brive-la-Gaillarde and equal Lance Armstrong and Andre Darrigade in fourth place in the all-time rankings of stage winners. Cav has largely been playing a support role in this year’s TdF in a bid to wheel team mate Bradley Wiggins to overall victory (and quite possibly to save himself a little for the upcoming Olympic challenge), but today witnessed his compelling brilliance over the final few metres of the course. Wiggins has maintained his lead of 2minutes and 5seconds over team mate Chris Froome, all but making him a shoe-in for victory on Sunday; Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) is currently in third place 36 seconds behind Froome and reigning title holder Cadel Evans languishes in sixth nearly 10 minutes behind Wiggins.

 

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Evans Admits Defeat

Whilst Thomas Voeckler took first place on yesterday’s Stage 16 of the Tour de France (197km, Pau – Bagnères-de-Luchon) and Sky’s Bradley Wiggins maintained his lead for a staggering 10th day in yellow, there was less to celebrate for reigning champion Cadel Evans. The 35-year-old started the day 3’19” behind Wiggins but after clearly struggling on the climbs – finally losing sight of the front on the Col de Peyresourde some 20km from the finish line – he ended it more than 8 minutes adrift, effectively ending any chance of him retaining his title. The BMC rider reported that he had been suffering stomach problems before the day’s event, saying afterwards, ‘I didn’t think it would affect me in the race but obviously that’s not my normal level and it’s pretty much the Tour de France over for me.’

 

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Fränk Schleck Fails Drugs Test

RadioShack’s Fränk Schleck is out of the Tour de France after failing a routine drugs test on July 14. The 32-year-old brother of the 2010 TdF champion Andy, tested positive for xipamide, a diuretic used for treating a range of conditions including hypertension that, although not a performance enhancer itself or specifically mentioned in WADA’s list of banned substances, can be used to mask other illegal substances.

 

RadioShack Nissan Trek was quick to act, withdrawing their rider immediately, even though under no obligation to do so. In a statement they said, ‘Mr. Schleck and the team believe this is the right thing to do, to ensure the Tour de France can go on in calm and that Fränk Schleck can prepare his defence in accordance with the legal timing to do so.’

 

Addressing the subject of xipamide specifically the statement continued: ‘It is not a product that is present in any of the medicine that the team uses and the reason for the presence of xipamide in the urine sample of Mr. Schleck is unclear to the team. Therefore, the team is not able to explain the adverse findings at this point. However, the team is fully determined to collaborate with the anti-doping agencies in order to resolve the matter.’

 

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Tacks Blight Tour

Investigations are continuing today after sabotage on Stage 14 (Limoux – Foix) brought chaos to the Tour de France. Multiple punctures were caused around 200m from the summit of Mur de Peguere by carpet tacks that had been scattered in the path of riders; both Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome escaped unscathed but defending champion Cadel Evans dismounted at the summit to make good his bike. In accordance with Tour etiquette Wiggins slowed the peloton pace to avoid taking advantage of others’ misfortune.

 

Rabobank’s Luis Leon Sanchez went on to win the stage in 4hrs 50’29”, with Peter Sagan in second and Sandy Casar third. Wiggins retained his Yellow Jersey to extend the British record number of days and maintained his lead of 2’05” over team mate Froome. Evans goes into Stage 15 (158.5km Samatan – Pau) sitting at fourth and 3’19” behind Wiggins.

 

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Cancellara Cancels at TdF

Fabian Cancellara of RadioShack Nissan Trek has announced today that he will not start Stage 11 of the Tour de France, but instead drop from this year’s event and return home to Bern to be with his wife in the last stages of her pregnancy. The Swiss rider, who won both the Prologue and Stage 7 at this year’s TdF, said in a statement, ‘The decision to go back home is harder than you might expect… Up to now the team has had a very good Tour de France. We won a stage, had the yellow jersey for more than a week, we lead the Teams Classification and we have four riders in the top 20 of the GC. Most of all, we could show the cycling world that we are not just a group of nine strong individual riders, but a real team. The atmosphere within this group is amazing.  All of this makes it hard to abandon here. On the other hand, all of my team mates and directors understand and agree with my decision.’

 

All being well Cancellara will be back on the saddle to defend his title at the London Olympics in just a few week’s time.