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Wiggins and Froome (pic Bettini Photo, courtesy Pinarello)Sean Yates says Chris Froome went "back on his word" when he attacked Bradley Wiggins on 2012 Tour de France
Former Team Sky sports director Sean Yates, who guided Sir Bradley Wiggins to Tour de France victory in 2012, has accused Chris Froome of going “back on his word” for his attack on his team leader during the race.
In what remains one of the most memorable episodes of Team Sky’s decade in the peloton, Froome attacked 4 kilometres from the end of Stage 12, which finished at La Toussuire, and only eased up when ordered to do so by Yates, who said in a book published the following year that Wiggins nearly quit the race as a result.
> Sean Yates: Bradley Wiggins nearly quit 2012 Tour de France after Chris Froome 'attack'
Yates was asked about the incident when he appeared as a guest on the latest episode of The Bradley Wiggins Show podcast on Eurosport.
Wiggins, replying first, said: “I don’t think I’d packed my bags. But it can’t go on like this for two weeks. I thought we were all on the same page, if it carries on like this I’ll just go home.
“I took so much stick the year before for failing and I’m starting to get it right, I’m leading the Tour by 2 minutes so then we had someone shooting bullets in a different direction to what we were doing.
“It’s just trying to understand the situation. All these guys, Richie [Porte], Mick [Rogers], they’d all sacrificed their chances for us to win the Tour,” he continued.
“I was leading by 2 minutes, it wasn’t part of the plan, I was kind of going, ‘What’s going on?’ I couldn’t understand the situation, more than anything.”
Yates said: “There’s definitely truth in it, Bradley was so focused, it’s a fine line when you’re that focused, that motivated, it can kick either way easily, some more easily than others.
“Like Bradley said, for me Froome went back on his word and for me, he’s not a guy I like for that reason. End of story.”
When the attack happened, Yates, speaking on the radio from the team car, said, “Froomey, you’d better have Brad’s permission for that.”
Reminded of that communication with the rider, Yates said: “Yes because obviously it wasn’t part of the plan. So I’m thinking, ‘Okay, maybe they had a chat between themselves and Brad said this is okay’, that’s obviously why I questioned him.
“But there was no conversation, it was not part of the plan.”
Wiggins added: “I think I spoke to him later and in his head he was trying to get more time on Nibali but in doing that he took his eye off the ball.”
Yates interjected: “But that wasn’t our priority. We had a plan and it suddenly got led astray.
“Okay, you can take it either way; either he was naïve and didn’t really mean it, this, that and the other.
“But when I think of what he’s done since, I think, ‘he’s not that naïve’, he did go back on his word, me, Bradley and Dave B were in the room in the back of the bus, we came to an agreement and he reneged on that agreement, end of story,” he added.
Last year, Froome spoke about the incident when he was interviewed on ex-Formula 1 driver Nico Rosberg’s podcast, and said that he had issues trusting Wiggins as a result of the previous year’s Vuelta, where he finished second overall to Juan Jose Cobo (since disqualified due to an anti-doping rule violation), with his team leader third.
> Chris Froome says he had issues trusting Bradley Wiggins at 2012 Tour de France
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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12 comments
On a related note, remember Froome dragging Dumoulin back towards G in the mountains couple of times last year? Not exactly team play.
On a related note, remember Froome dragging Dumoulin back towards G in the mountains couple of times last year? Not exactly team play.
Wiggins will probably end his days hanging in the shed. He's got that kind of aura about him imo. All I've seen and read about him point to him being a bit of cnt when thing aren't going his way or he's got idle hands. He's certainly aired a lot of bitter washing since retiring. I guess you've got to be OCD or a socio/psychopath to really succeed anyway.
Didn't Sky have to treat him with kid gloves at all times or he'd go into a sulk and not sit with anyone at dinner and stuff?
Wiggins has to be one of sport's most bitter winners. He gets so much given to him, from the TS team serving him up the tour on a plate to James Cracknell giving him personal tutoring to start a rowing career (remember that?) but he whinges and moans at every opportunity he's given about stuff that was nearly a decade ago.
You don't see any of this rubbish in the women's cycling, of course.
FFS this was 7 years ago
I'm kind of bored of this story now, if it's on Brad's mind still he probably needs to let it go. It didn't cost him the tour, Froome didn't continue the attack beyond when he was called back, as others have said, if Wiggins was that strong he could have either gone with him, or ridden his own pace and finished up losing just a little time while Froome would have likely won the stage.
Apparently that year Wiggins paid all the riders on the team a personal bonus for helping, with the exception of Froome, it sounds very much like he felt seriously threatened.
Yep agree most people who state that Chris Froome could have ridden away with tour are missing the fact the BW puts out at about as many w/kg at threashold as CF (or he wouldn't be able to beat him in TTs) so any attacks CF put in most of the way up the final mountain would not have had enough road to make up the 3 minute deficit in the TTs BW is a pro athlete he's not going to get off and push.
I think the points you could make are:
1: Sean Yates brought it up!
2: We're all talking about it, this is probably why Eurosport pay Bradley Wiggins to do the pod cast and do live commentary.
3: On the podcast he said something quite interesting which was that he couldn't deal with uncertainty, which is probably why despite having one of the largest engines in the history of cycling he very rarely won any indivdual stages or one day races where he had to directly take on other people as oposed to TTs where you control all the variables. It was this deviation from the plan that really rattled Wiggins.
4: The payments to the team are normally made on the basis that the rest of the team give up the chance of winning any prize money, Froome trousered 200k for second place. It's an excuse and probably the one Wiggins would make!
Froome was basically showing off and playing mind games, but the key thing is that it worked. He pyschologically finished off Wiggins and the rest is history.
Perversely if Wiggins had actually been okay with the whole thing and did what you suggested the whole stolen tour narrative would have never existed and he'd be the person who beat on merit the man who won it 4 times.
Yep agree most people who state that Chris Froome could have ridden away with tour are missing the fact the BW puts out at about as many w/kg at threashold as CF (or he wouldn't be able to beat him in TTs) so any attacks CF put in most of the way up the final mountain would not have had enough road to make up the 3 minute deficit in the TTs BW is a pro athlete he's not going to get off and push.
I think the points you could make are:
1: Sean Yates brought it up!
2: We're all talking about it, this is probably why Eurosport pay Bradley Wiggins to do the pod cast and do live commentary.
3: On the podcast he said something quite interesting which was that he couldn't deal with uncertainty, which is probably why despite having one of the largest engines in the history of cycling he very rarely won any indivdual stages or one day races where he had to directly take on other people as oposed to TTs where you control all the variables. It was this deviation from the plan that really rattled Wiggins.
4: The payments to the team are normally made on the basis that the rest of the team give up the chance of winning any prize money, Froome trousered 200k for second place. It's an excuse and probably the one Wiggins would make!
Froome was basically showing off and playing mind games, but the key thing is that it worked. He pyschologically finished off Wiggins and the rest is history.
Perversely if Wiggins had actually been okay with the whole thing and did what you suggested the whole stolen tour narrative would have never existed and he'd be the person who beat on merit the man who won it 4 times.
and if Thomas hadn't have sacrificed himself for Froome as a SD then you could arguably say that he would have won the tour before last year. Froome was in the wrong and virtually did an Hinault (on LeMond) and wasn't even repentent.
One person says one thing, another says something different. In the end does it really matter ? Wiggins went on to win the tour and who knows what might have happened if Froome had carried on with his attack but he didn't and thats the end of the matter as far as most people are concerned
Christ, it's a team sport, no-one wins the Tour on their own. Froome was paid to follow team orders. and he didn't. In the subsequent years he benefitted from the same discipline as Wiggins did. If you don't like that, go and watch tennis.
Froome was obviously the stronger rider . Wiggos tour win was a gift . The stages that year were about as perfect for him as could be ( Olympic year at GB , etc etc very suspicious about the tour route) . This is why I hate sports now . Wiggo was given that tour , Froome could have won that tour even with the TT . Wiggo would have cracked just like the way NIbali destroyed him at the giro . Biggest fake victory of the tour . He only cried like a baby “ going home “ because if he was the better rider he would have said “ bring it on Froome “ instead he throws is toys out of the window .
Remember Wiggo on superstars , where top athletes battle it out over different sports ...oh yeah he came last . Without the likes of dr Leinders or the elephant grave of doping riders , team Garmin he would always just have been a decent pro but he’s not a bad responder to the PED’s administered by people who know what they are doing ,so he won way beyond his natural ability. Just like Froome etc . I still dont understand all the lies and excuses that DB have made how they have not been busted , oh yeah just like Armstrong , the money talks .