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news
Sir Bradley Wiggins on BBC Breakfast 6 June 2014Bradley Wiggins to ride track at Commonwealth Games as Sky confirms he won’t ride Tour
Team England and British Cycling have today announced that Bradley Wiggins will join the track squad for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, July 23-August 3.
The news comes on the heels of Team Sky’s announcement of a Tour de France squad without Wiggins, making him available to ride for the national team in Glasgow.
Wiggins has said that he plans to focus on the track in the run up to the 2016 Rio Olympic Games where he hopes to add to his medal tally.
Shane Sutton said: “I’m very happy to be able to welcome Sir Bradley back to the track team for the Commonwealth Games - his addition will be a real morale boost to the rest of the track squad. The decision of who will ride what event will be made nearer the time.”
Earlier today Team Sky today announced its team for the Tour de France (July 5-27) and confirmed that as expected, Chris Froome will be the team’s candidate for the general classification, defending the title he won last year.
Froome will be supported by Richie Porte, Geraint Thomas, Mikel Nieve, Bernhard Eisel, Vasil Kiryienka, David López, Danny Pate and Xabier Zandio.
Wiggins has said several times this year that he would be happy to ride for Froome at the Tour, so his exclusion could be interpreted as a major snub. It’ll be interesting to see if he even rides for Team Sky again this season.
Sky’s team principal Dave Brailsford said: “Team Sky returns to the Tour de France with the reigning champion and we are looking to win the yellow jersey for the third time in three years and a second consecutive time for Chris Froome. Defending champion Chris Froome is an exceptional talent, a brilliant stage racer, and he’ll lead the team.
“We know how hard it is to win this race and that it takes a totally focused and carefully constructed team, with the right blend of riders, to give us the best chance of victory. Each rider has been selected to play a specific role which will involve total sacrifice and commitment to the team’s ambition of reaching the Champs Élysées in yellow.
“In tackling the difficult challenge of selecting this team, we have stuck to a performance-first philosophy which has bought us considerable success, firstly at British Cycling and then with Team Sky, for more than a decade. Given the number of talented riders in Team Sky this approach has inevitably lead to some very tough decisions – however it’s crucial to remain totally focused on the desired outcome and we’re racing to win.
“It has been a golden decade for cycling. Bradley Wiggins lies at the heart of a lot of that success, and although he has not been selected for this race he is still a key member of Team Sky and a great champion.
“The last time the Tour came to Britain it helped sow the seeds for what eventually became Team Sky. Everyone should be immensely proud of how far we’ve come and we can’t wait to ride in front of the UK fans. I believe that this will mark the moment when Britain truly becomes a cycling nation.”
Chris Froome said: “Everyone in the team is hugely excited about the Tour de France starting in the UK and racing in front of home fans as defending champion will be an incredible honour.
“We did a recce of the Yorkshire stages a few weeks ago and the excitement was already starting to build and the support that we have received has been fantastic. I’ll never forget the atmosphere on the roads during the London Olympics and to receive similar support at the Tour would be amazing. There’s no greater motivation for us than riding in front of our UK fans.
“We have a really strong team going into the race, full of experience and ability, and we’ve spent a lot of time together this year which is very important. We’re ready to get started and can’t wait to get to Yorkshire.”
John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
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47 comments
Percentage of Wiggins' life spent in the UK 80%+ (just a guess)
Percentage of Froome's life spent in the UK 1.0%+ (just a guess)
Froome isn't as British as Greg Ruzedski. Funny how much more the British Public warmed to Greg once Tim came along.
Hanging out in Monaco is fine for F1 drivers who tend to spend a lot of time here at the factory or on Top Gear or making dodgy bank adverts. Froome just looks like the Union Jack is a flag of convenience, has even been here since the Olympics?
Yep - Recon ride couple weeks ago
Hmm, don't let facts get in the way of prejudice. They don't stop plenty of people on this site.
Hmm, don't let facts get in the way of prejudice. They don't stop plenty of people on this site.
As far as I'm concerned Wiggins has been shafted, it's a massive waste of ability to leave him out and a PR blunder. He's worked hard for years towards achieving cycling excellence and is a true champion.
Additionally I think Chris Froome is the uncharismatic, Zola Budd of cycling.
Yes and spot on. Does Froome actually have a personality?
I don't have Sky. I don't read the chimp papers or any papers anymore and I have no Team Sky kit.
That said. You would be hard pressed to find many sponsors that are squeaky clean. Are Sky any worse than that other Aussie sponsor - the mining corporation Orica? Probably not.
Off at a slight tangent, I think that Froome's crash in the Dauphiné will have inflicted more physical and loss-of-confidence damage than he may realise. I don't think he'll win this year - just top 5.
I wouldn't be surprised if the 2014 'winner' is later stripped of the title.
Since Wiggins seems to be considerably more charismatic, popular and British than Froome, isn't this decision going to bring negative publicity to the sponsors British Sky Broadcasting Group plc? At then end of the day the race is held for the fans, who pay the sponsors, who pay the teams. If the fans do not like the decision, then...isn't it a bad decision?
Exactly my thoughts, will be even worse if CF fails to win as well.
The Tour just lost a lot of its sparkle for me, I for one won't be cheering Froome on, quite the reverse. Lets hope Brad gets out of Sky A.S.A.P.
Have to echo the calls regards nationality suddenly being a big thing in cycling- it was the international nature that was a big draw for me in following the sport as opposed to the jingoism and, in some cases, latent xenophobia, that typifies many other sports (though growing up in NI during the troubles may explain why I have such a jaded view of the abstract construct that is national identity!). It is just sad that so many new converts try to drag it down to an accident of birth deciding whether you should ride for certain teams or not.
All these comments about nationality are rubbish, Froome is as British as Wiggins, both were born outside UK, but have British families. Wiggins is just more British in his jack the lad ways. Cycling is not like Football in terms of only playing for your national country.
Have to disagree on Froome's Britishness. Nationality is complex and about far more than where you were born, so the fact both were born overseas is immaterial. It just appears as if being British has been convenient for Froome as he seems to do little to support the sport in the UK. He hasn't raced in the UK since the Olympics - would have been a great boost for British cycling to have had reigning TdF champion at Ride London, Tour of Britain or British nationals yet he's given all of them a miss. Wiggins and the other British Sky riders often train and race in the UK - which gives the impression they care more and are therefore more British.
As a close confidant of Brad and someone who's wisdom he often calls on i would advise him to ditch Sky as soon as he can.
They are funded by a despicable human being and his son (who is possibly going to face charges over the hacking thing) and many other teams have got wise to Sky's racing tactics and Brailsford et al can only make so many marginal gains before pure talent (of which there is lots coming through in other teams) will prevail.
We are at the point where Sky can no longer dominate and their brief moment in the sun is coming to an end.
Bradley is still a world class bike rider and he deserves better.
'Sir' Brad only won the TdF on team orders and has only ever done what suits. Ridiculous sentiment going on here.
Whereas Froome has *ignored* team orders. What a cunt.
Don't see why you bring Skys' owners into this , it has no bearing on the team. Do you not have sky sports , watch sky news or read papers etc ect lol... I'm sure saxo bank is run by delightful chaps lol
In answer to your questions - No, no and no
Oh come on folks, Wiggo ruled himself out weeks ago. He made it clear that he wasn't going to ride the tour well before Sky had started their selection process.
Grand tours are 4 weeks of being with the same 9 people day in day out .If there is simmering bad feeling to begin with it will make the day to day running of the squad extremely difficult . Dave Brailsford had a difficult decision to make and I think he made the correct call. Bradley Wiggins is and will always be a hero, the 1st British winner of the greatest bike race ever but the future is Froome and as team leader and GC rider he must have an input into his team set-up , the riders he trusts, the riders he trained with in Tenerife (Brad was in mallorca) and the best riders available . It is possible Froome can win several more tours and he is dedicated to the road unlike Wiggins. I personally dont think SKY will have it all their own way in this years tour as Contador and the SaxoBank team are looking very strong . I think we will see exactly what Froome,Porte,Geraint Thomas, Mikel Nieve, Bernhard Eisel, Vasil Kiryienka, David López, Danny Pate and Xabier Zandio are all made of against Alberto Contador ,Rogers, Roche, Kreuziger and company. Contador looked ominously strong in the criterium de dauphine
1) How long will brailsford last if he leaves out Brad and Froome doesn't win?
2) what if Brad decides to race for Aus at the Commies....to stick it to the man!
3) What if Brad only wanted to the tour if he was given a stab at GC if strong enough.
All this,band more in this weeks episode of SOAP.
Wiggo would have made a useful domestique, so it's a shame he's not on the squad. I can't see him being a grand tour contender any more though, unless there's 5 stages of individual time trial.
He might do for someone he gets on with, like when he rode for Cav on the CE in 2012, but not for Froome.
Agreed
Precisely. I can't remember a time when Cav tried to fuck him over, so why not ride for Cav?
He rode for Cav as he felt he owed him a debt for ballsing up the Madison at an Olympics meaning Cav was one of the few (maybe the only) to be coming home with out a gold.
The same reason he rode his arse off for him in Copenhagen too.
F**k team sky, like it or not leaving Brad out in favour of an apparent stedhead drug (kind of) cheet won't help the brand. I hope he is back at next years Tour and kicks Froome in to touch. I think sky's lack of loyalty and not having a British leader is sad
Really don't get where this nations thing in cycling came from, it wasn't around 3 years back. Yet it becomes popular in the UK and it's all about British.
OPQS (Belgian) have Mark Cavendish(UK) as their leader, I imagine the Belgians aren't kicking up a fuss.
Cannondale Pro Cycling(Italian) have Peter Sagan(Slovak) as their leader, I imagine the Italians aren't kicking up a fuss.
Cycling is a sport where nationalities matter very very little apart from one race of the year. The sooner newer cycling fans realise this, the better.
They put what they thought was the best team, like them/him or not but Sky/DB know far far more about team selections than anyone here.
Nationality doesn't mean you get a spot, coming from near a stage start/finish doesn't get you in and so on.
All that does it your performance and been able to ride 110% for your team leader, they didn't want to risk the internal balance, be it that BW was going to rock the boat, or CF wasn't wanting him.
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