HAVING WON the Besancon time trial, Bradley Wiggins and the management of Team Sky had 36 hours respite to consider how to approach the second half of the Tour. Their perfect three days at the head of affairs in the Tour de France had left Sky with Wiggins and Chris Froome in first and third overall, but had also left the team with a hard task ahead. The yellow jersey now needs to be defended for 10 road-race stages.
Wiggins did not choose to take the race lead as early as eight days in, but no Tour winner has taken the lead so early and defended the maillot jaune until Paris since Bernard Hinault in 1981 – the Badger remained in yellow for 16 days after reclaiming the jersey on stage six.
The trainer who is responsible for Sky’s Tour team, Tim Kerrison, was confident his charges had it in them to complete the job in spite of the loss of one of their number, Konstantin Siutsou. “The guys are in a familiar position now. They’ve been defending race leaders’ jerseys all year.”
To date, this season, Sky have taken the overall title in almost every stage race that the core of riders who form the Tour de France team have started: the Tour of Algarve with Ritchie Porte, the Tour of Bavaria with Michael Rogers, and Paris-Nice, the Tour of Romandie and the Dauphine Libere with Wiggins. In all three of Wiggins’s victories, their leader took the leader’s jersey early in the race.
Part of Kerrison’s plan for Wiggins to win the Tour was for him or other members of the Tour selection to spend the maximum amount of time possible leading their target races so that they would find themselves in a familiar position if they took the maillot jaune in the Tour, and that, he hopes, will pay dividends.
“They are comfortable doing it, they know what to do and how to do it. You need to do it smartly and efficiently. We’ve selected the team knowing they would have to move between the demands of supporting a GC rider and supporting Mark [Cavendish] for the sprints.”
The opposition seemed to feel over the weekend, after Sky’s show of strength at La Planche des Belles Filles, that the team might tire between there and Paris. Erstwhile leader Fabian Cancellara said: “They [will] have a hard Tour now for sure . . . there are hard mountain stages and yeah, I think we will see them pulling a lot.”
Kerrison, however, felt Sky had come into their own over the weekend. “I think we’ve reasserted ourselves as a climbing team. Everyone saw how the team performed in the Dauphine and wondered if they would perform the same way here. [La Planche des Belles Filles] gives us confidence that nothing has changed in the last three weeks. They are still the dominant climbing team.
“Everyone was wondering whether the level [of the competition] would be higher at this race but we’re confident and we still think there aren’t going to be too many opportunities for the opposition in the high mountains.”
While one threat is set to come from individuals such as Jurgen Van Den Broeck, Nibali, and Evans, Cancellara’s Radioshack-Nissan-Trek team are well placed to pose Sky questions, having four riders – Haimar Zubeldia, Maxime Monfort, Tony Gallopin and Andreas Kloden – within seven minutes of Wiggins’s overall lead.
Radioshack have taken over the lead in the team standings from Sky, and more importantly are in a position to attack from a distance with different riders to test Wiggins and his team. Speaking after his time-trial victory on Monday, Wiggins was unwilling to dwell too much on what he had achieved. “Tomorrow we will think about the context, how this fits into the Tour.”
He did, however, imply the time trial had left Sky with another dilemma: whether to attempt to keep Chris Froome in his third place all the way to Paris. “I don’t think we planned to have two riders in the first three, so it’s for Dave Brailsford and Sean Yates to assess how to do it, whether to sacrifice one position or try and finish two of us on the podium.”
Guardian Service
Cofidis suspend Di Gregorio
The Cofidis team have suspended Tour rider Remy Di Gregorio after the French rider was reportedly taken in by police for questioning over alleged doping offences.
Di Gregorio was yesterday taken to Marseille to help the police with their enquiries, according to reports.
The team have reacted by suspending the 26-year-old “as a precaution” pending further investigation into the matter.
“We have at present very little information about the events which allegedly took place,” read a Cofidis team statement.
“Nevertheless, suspicions about the rider in question, Remy Di Gregorio, lead us to apply strict and immediate sanctions in force in our team regarding the violation of ethics rules.”
