Could Dave Brailsford be trying to keep the squabbling kids apart for as long as possible? Team Sky have announced that Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome will be taking different paths ahead of this year’s Tour de France with Wiggins riding in the Tour of Switzerland (June 14-22) and Froome set for the Criterium du Dauphine (June 8-15).
Froome will be defending his title at the Dauphine (an event Wiggins won in both 2011 and 2012) after a block of training at altitude in Tenerife. Given the increased difficulty of this year’s mountainous route he will be joined by a climbing-focused line-up: Richie Porte, runner-up last year, returns alongside Vasil Kiryienka, David Lopez, Mikel Nieve, Danny Pate, Bayern Rundfahrt winner Geraint Thomas and Xabier Zandio.
Wiggins rides the Tour de Suisse off the back of his impressive win at the Tour of California, which was a key target for his season. Supporting him will be three team-mates from his recent success: Joe Dombrowski, Christian Knees and Luke Rowe, three of the Sky Giro d’Italia team – Dario Cataldo, Philip Deignan and Ben Swift – and Pete Kennaugh, part of last year’s Tour-winning team.
Team Sky Team Principal Dave Brailsford said: ‘Both the Criterium du Dauphine and Tour de Suisse are WorldTour events and we are looking to perform in both races… Both of these races will form part of our selection for the Tour. We have to name 13 riders in a long list during June and we’ll do that from across the squad, including riders at the Route du Sud, not only those in the Dauphine and Tour de Suisse groups.’