Bradley Wiggins: GarMan?
by Hons on Sep 3, 2008 2:09 PM EDT
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PrintIt appears so. Backing up yesterdays speculation, CW is reporting that Mr. Wiggins himself has confirmed that he has signed a 2-year deal with garmin-Chipotle.
On why he is leaving Columbia:
“They are building a team around Cav [Mark Cavendish] and rightly so. Columbia is going to be the Cav show and who can blame them.
“But I don't want to go to every race leading out Cav every day. It was good fun doing that for him at the Giro, but I don't fancy that for the next few years. I still have ambitions myself.“The problem is that the stages when I can go for it and try to get in breaks are also the ones when Cav can win, and my job would be to be by his side.
He said that the reason that he signed with Columbia (then T-mobile) was that they could garantee that he would ride the Giro and allow him to prepare for the Olympics (which seems to have worked out fine - two gold medals)
His goals for next year?
“I hope to do well in the Tour for myself next year. The peloton is getting slower and slower and I reckon I will have some chances.”
And the prologue in Monaco of course.
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This is great news
Now there is a shot at something other than a TT win for GC stage races. Garmen are looing up for next year.
Just spinning the pedals in the hills of Western Maryland
Wow, "the peloton...
…is getting slower and slower!!" Those are the words I’ve been waiting to hear for the last 10 years!! Wait, um..
Well, I hope no one takes their foot of the break pedal anytime soon. Internal testing programs anyone? Columbia, Garmin, and Astana…who’s next?
Could we convince Katusha to step up? I kinda doubt it. But they are Russian and I lived through the Cold War. It’ll take me a minute to develop some trust. I’ll get there though.
Any chance that this explains all the negativity regarding Katusha?
Never, ever, work with a sprinter.
by Put 'Em in the Gutter on Sep 3, 2008 2:57 PM EDT reply actions
Ermmm how about CSC
who had the original program but who everyone seems to forget when listing teams :)
I thought I was forgetting someone...
…, thanks.
Never, ever, work with a sprinter.
by Put 'Em in the Gutter on Sep 3, 2008 8:03 PM EDT up reply actions
"They are building a team around Cav [Mark Cavendish] and rightly so. Columbia is going to be the Cav show and who can blame them.
…and where does that leave Ciolek?
Better make that...
…150 Gerry. Cav likes to leave something in the tank for the next day.
Never, ever, work with a sprinter.
by Put 'Em in the Gutter on Sep 3, 2008 3:15 PM EDT reply actions
Ciolek still rumored to go to Milram?
but who knows now they are blowing their budget on the Gerol’s
Ciolek must be higher on their list
He’s a beast in the making. He’s going to win many races, no doubt.
Carlos Sastre - Tour de France winner - Born From Jets
i think in that too
should make big sucess, i think.
by semprenaroda on Sep 3, 2008 10:19 PM EDT up reply actions
T-Shirt
" ‘The Peloton’s getting slower’ which means I’m getting faster!"
Is the peloton really getting slower?
Not so sure myself. I think it’s reached an equilibrium in recent years. The peloton is riding differently though it’s less about one team sitting at the front putting the hammer down all day.
And if Wiggy doesn’t like leading peeps out … well don’t tell that to Garmin’s sprinters.
pounding along in three ratios like a sonata
like a Ritter with pommelled scrotum atra cura on the step
Botticelli from the fork down pestling the transmission
tires bleeding voiding zeep the highway
strano
pretty common job for a pursuiter, to play lead-out, I mean. I would have thought that was the main reason to sign a guy like him. He doesn’t really win races on the road, at least not that I can remember lately.
he had that long breakaway in last year's Tour
he was away for almost the whole stage, wasn’t he? Eventually if you get into enough breaks one of them will stay away until the end … I’m guessing that with Columbia, they are becoming much less inclined to let their riders get into breaks and much more inclined to want to chase down all breaks so to maximize Cav’s chances (which then minimizes Wiggins’ and other’s chances of stage wins on the same sort of stages). And, as Wiggins says himself, you can’t really blame them for trying to go for the more sure thing (ie Cav winning a sprint stage vs. Wiggins/other Columbia rider staying away in a break for a stage win).
Yeah, but the ones with no real chance of doing anything are often allowed away for a whole day.
Here’s a thing about Wiggy. In 2007, when there was that sit-down protest against the junkies in the race, Wiggy went with the other guys. Now I’m not saying that makes him pro-junking. I’m more saying that makes him look dumb.
His main job for Garmin will be to lead out their sprinters and to win prologues. The odd stage might get tossed his way if the team doesn’t have any options, but the same he could have got staying with Columbia. So, here’s the question: why don’t Columbia want him? Do they figure him and Cavendish on the same team isn’t going to work?
As for Columbia not wanting to let riders get into breaks – look at Sunday in the ToI. They sent a rider into the break while also having the chance to clinch GC with two others. The same breaks he figures he’s going to get with Garmin are on offer with Columbia. Unless he’s saying Garmin don’t really have that many chances to win stages. Big fish, small pond is what he’s figuring.
pounding along in three ratios like a sonata
like a Ritter with pommelled scrotum atra cura on the step
Botticelli from the fork down pestling the transmission
tires bleeding voiding zeep the highway
by fmk on Sep 4, 2008 9:04 PM EDT up reply actions
i was wondering actually
about the reports that Cav was apparently really upset (swore at Wiggins when they missed a handover? I think I read that …) over the madison and depressed afterwards … though Wiggins seems to brush off any hint of a rift with Cav in the Cycling Weekly article, who knows what Cav thinks at this point …
forgot to add
also though, is the idea that Wiggins wanted to sign with Vaughters last year but didn’t because they didn’t know at that time if they were going to the Giro – so could be that Vaughters’ team was always his ultimate goal and plan and he’s just sticking to that plan, and it has nothing to do with Columbia particularly (though I suppose if he was particularly enamoured of being with Columbia he might have stayed longer).
A stage-hunting model is a more egalitarian model.
I’m not saying that Garmin can’t potentially rock the GC if everything goes right, but they end up going to plan B—stage win attempts—with considerable regularity, quite often early in a tour. That’s a lot more days, per tour and per year, to try to get in a good break. Maybe even with top-quality company…without threatening other teams’ GC contenders.
I think he’s playing the percentages, as well as liking the style.
And…feel free to differ…given the adrenaline level, things yelled upon missing a handoff should probably be as inadmissible in polite analysis as things yelled in bed. Cav seems to be kicking himself at least as much as he’s cold-shouldering Wiggo. If Cav gets on TV and says he thinks it was intentional, I’ll pay it some serious attention.
I do agree that they seem to have fallen out of love. I’m using that term not as a throwaway, nor as a sexual innuendo (not that it would be a bad thing blah blah blah disclaimer blah blah).
But the more that I look at track teams off the track, after the race—turning their heads at the same time, standing at the same angle, shifting in unison on the podium, totally in tune at all times—it strikes me as a relationship that depends on an intense interaction, total trust, a sense that the other person’s body is an extension of your own, and a deep commitment to valuing the other person’s success as much as you value your own. If that’s not a flavor of love, I don’t know what else to call it.
It must be damned painful to have that “relationship on the rocks” feeling, and no proper name to stick on it, at least nothing that does it justice. If they stop kicking themselves, they might be able to get it back. Or maybe better to go their own ways for a while.
given the adrenaline level, things yelled upon missing a handoff should probably be as inadmissible in polite analysis as things yelled in bed.
So what’s the skinny on what Cav yelled to him in bed then? Do tell!
pounding along in three ratios like a sonata
like a Ritter with pommelled scrotum atra cura on the step
Botticelli from the fork down pestling the transmission
tires bleeding voiding zeep the highway
by fmk on Sep 5, 2008 6:09 PM EDT up reply actions
Is Cav's honeymoon...
…finally over? What is he, 21??? I’m just kidding. I think he’s fair game too. If he were a humble boy from BFE, I’d want to cut him some slack. He has a mighty, mighty mouth, and he is asking for whatever he is going to get.
What a talent, though!! Cipo who?
Where does everyone think his career will go next? Can he convert to a real hard man?? GP-E3 next year? De Ronde a few years after that? It’s much easier to go from sprinter to rouleur, than… Wait, maybe that was the EPO?
Never, ever, work with a sprinter.
by Put 'Em in the Gutter on Sep 6, 2008 12:53 AM EDT up reply actions
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