metabike

Full marks to Bradley Wiggins and Team Sky. When he took control of the yellow jersey so early, I thought that they would be absolutely hammered in the remaining days. To their credit, what little work they had to do, they did admirably and proved me wrong; everything seemed to fall in place for them this year and they deserve credit. And we can all say the route was lame, his competitors were weak and/or Froome was held back, but the fact of business is, he's won one of the world's most difficult cycling races and for that alone he has earned some respect. One final thought, I'd say that on the 45th anniversary of his death, Tom Simpson must be smiling down on Wiggins and (knowing Simpson's off-the-chart competitiveness) wishing that he could have taken a shot at hammering the snot out of him! I really do hope that after it's all over in Paris, Wiggins will acknowledge Brian Robinson, Tom Simpson, etc. for their pioneering efforts paved the way for him to take the yellow jersey home.

nun

I think Wiggins would do better to thank Brailsford. Simpson certainly did a lot for British cycling early on.......but I'm not sure what he has to do with Wiggins success or that we should be raising Simpson to great heights given the way he ended his career, some might say it was total commitment, others would say total stupidity.

beavertoof

yeah cudo's to the only two brits in the history of the world who have been able to lay off the beer long enough to actually get as thin as they need to be to ride to victory in the mtns of France!

Ken Brown

Sky has an awesome team and they are unbeatable this year.

gsteinb

Brailsford has brass balls. He said he was going to build a program to win the tour and he went ahead and did it. He built one of of the best track programs in history along the way.

Talldog

Yes, he will win the race barring any sort of catastrophy. Kudos to him for that as that is what Sky Procycling paid for. But bad on him and his team for being the boringest yellow jersey ever. Maybe it's the British way, LOL. He even makes Cadel Evans look exciting. Wiggo basically won the Tour by beating everyone in the early ITT then wheelsucking the strongest rider in the race the rest of the way to Paris. He should give Froome a double share of the prize money . I can't remember any previous winners who did not put in some kind of attack to at least do honour to the yellow jersey. Even Big Mig, an ITT specialist in his own right, put in some mountain stage attacks while in yellow. And Wiggo's occasional leadouts for his sprinters do not offer any redemption and are as self serving to him (safety plus image) as they are to the sprinters. But in the end he will win, but too bad it was such a yawner of a way to do it. And kudos to Tommy Voeckler for getting in a few well placed digs about how to approach the TDF mountain stages as a passionate race for glory. I think many fans will welcome the return of AC and AS next year to at least put some excitement back into the quest for the yellow. And maybe Froome will be unleashed which could add even more to the drama if he maintains his present form.

Caretaker

It's the 25th anniversary of the first (and only) TdF win by an Irish rider.

Just thought I'd mention that.

daveF

Not only will he be the first English rider to win the tour, he's the first rider in history to win Paris-Nice, Tour de Romandie, & the Dauphine in the same season.

Thanks to Wiggins & Froome, I am winning a bet I made before the start of the tour that they would both be on the podium!

Giacomo 1 

We maybe witnessing the beginning of a dynasty here. Looking at how inferior the competition was compared to Sky, this team could keep on winning like this for the next few years, if they can keep these riders and team members together. They didn't depend on luck or breaks because they didn't need to, they were just so much better and so much more superior than any other team out there.

This team reminds me of Ferrari in F1 during the Schumacher/Braun/Todt years. Pure domination of their sport. It was great if you were a Ferrari fan, but for everyone else, it was a miserable bore.

Wiggins is abit of a stiff. Not much panache and he is a little light on personality and I'm afraid he won't do much to help sell cycling to the world or be the great ambassador the sport could use. His poker face is annoying, his interviews reveal nothing and heck, I can't even stand his stiff, straight back, straight arm posture on a bike and I especially hate the fact that the man hardly ever has to get out of the saddle to win stages! But in the end I have to give it to him, he is a winner. He changed his style to to become a better all-around tour rider, and it worked, so hats off to him and to Sky. And I'm happy for our British cousins across the pond. They have alot to be happy about this week...

cthenn

Yes, he should, for keeping Froome on the leash. Barring the 1:25 he lost on stage 1 on a mechanical, I don't know if he could have been restrained.

Funny how RSN may win the team race, but did anyone think they were even in this race at all? A bunch of guys hanging on vs a team who dominated the entire 3 weeks! I too was bored to tears with this year's edition, and really find Sky's riding terribly unexciting to watch. It's complicated by the fact that Wiggins is a stiff, and that their only rider with real style is being held back for the "chosen son". Makes me dislike them even more. For Froome's sake, I hope he finds a new team next year to be the leader he deserves to be.

Shifty

Each year the TDF has it's own personality, this year is no exception, it's still been pretty fun to watch. No rule says that the GC competition has to include all of the drama, I have enjoyed watching Wiggins and his team gain and hold the yellow for so much of the race. There is something to be admired in the tactics and style when you can make that torture seem rather mundane, winning with measured effort and skill. The thing I love about watching the tour is the variety of competitions going on at the same time, sprinters duking it out, King of the Mountains had a fair amount of action this year and the White Jersey was even interesting this year. Not only that, but Phil and Paul can make even a boring tour fun and interesting to watch for three weeks, they should have a jersey competition for TV announcers, those two would hold the leader jersey longer than Wiggins!!

Flaneur

To borrow a saying from NEW England............ and it's the refrain of disrespected or unregarded winners of all kinds-

'How do you like them apples?'

Talldog

Indeed ... Expressionless and boring robots have found their way to the Champ d'Elysee while still in yellow at last. But boring wheel hugging efficiency will never trump panache and passion in the sport of cycling. Just my opinion.

But Cav .... now he is the REAL deal.

Shifty

Agree, I also prefer panache and passion, that is lacking this year. It's all good I suppose, to an extent.

metabike

To clarify: I am not saying that Simpson had anything to do with Wiggins' success directly. Rather, I was commenting that as the vanguard of Englishmen in Continental cycling, Robinson & Simpson (and Vin Denson, etc.) bear mentioning upon Wiggins being the first Englishmen to win the Tour.

You bring up a good point in the drastically divergent ways to look back at Tom Simpson. In thinking about what you wrote, I am inclined to say that he was both totally committed and stupid, though his ignorance was more a by-product of the time. From all that I have read of Simpson, he was an incredibly competitive person whose zeal to win led him to make a fatal decision. I agree completely that we shouldn't put him on a pedestal, but we should consider him a terribly tragic figure very much in the line of some of the characters of Greek mythology.

ramuntxo

I am not a big Wiggo fan but there is no denying Sky is making the other teams look like amateurs. I just feel like the GC field was watered down with the loss of Samu, the Schleck bros., and Contador. I know Frank was in the race and was doing nothing close to creating any havoc, I just feel this tour could've been a bit more exciting. Thank god for Tommy V.

Olden Crow

It's been so long in so many sports, 1927 an Englishman won the British Open in England (as opposed to Scotland), such a drought at Wimbledon, so seldom seen with the world cup in hand.

To me England is 'those' guys, not 'my' guys. I always root for their ancient rivals, France.

But hats off this year to those guys! They earned a salute.

Salute!

chasm54

Decent profile of Wiggins.

Most interesting is the comment by Shane Sutton, British Cycling's chief coach, about how Wiggins regrets that he didn't train properly earlier in his career. This during a period in which he was multiple world champion and gold medal winner on the track. Sounds as if he could have been quite useful...

And, of course, it may be that "training properly" means something rather different to these guys...

Dudelsack 

Can't win for losing . I remember on this very forum how much Sky was dissed for being a colossal waste of money this time last year. Now they're dissed for being so good there is a mechanical, almost robotic character about them. I wish the naysayers would make up their mind.

Flaneur

This

It's the responsibility of the other teams to make the race entertaining for the public-i.e., competitive.

See Anquetil, J and Indurain, M.

Talldog

Is that some kind of new English .... Or just a derivative of "rap" speak. I see it quite often, unfortunately.

Nerull

Exactly. If people want a real race, one of the other teams needs to give them a reason to race. Sky completely destroyed the competition. They make it look easy and boring because it was.

And not every winner is going to be Lance. Expecting Wiggins to lead attacks up mountains is like expecting Contador to take Cav in a bunch sprint. He's not the best rider in the mountains. He's damn good, and only a few riders in the world are better, but they are better and they're here in the tour. Races like the tour are won as team efforts.

Talldog

That is not entirely accurate within the context and history of the TDF and the implied honor and expectations bestowed upon the wearer of the yellow jersey. Even Cancellara, a pure time trialist knew that, and as such, p aid homage to it.

chasm54

Good grief. There are posters here who know what they are talking about. Thank you.

Flaneur

You're welcome:-)