We have reached the first rest day of le Tour de France and
from a British yellow jersey perspective it could not be going better. Wiggins
has been manoeuvred into the iconic maillot jaune by his dedicated team and he
strengthened his position today with a wonderful individual time trial. One
essential detail of Wiggin’s position in the Tour is the importance of Chris
Froome.
I have been a long term admirer of Froome since his
performances in last year’s Vuelta a España where he finished second with
Bradley Wiggins in third. He is a powerful time trial rider and the only pure
climber that races under the Union Jack. The rider was born in Kenya but was
eligible to race for Britain and due to licensing issues he chose to ply his
trade for Sky and team GB. That in my mind is a blessing for us as he is a
great ambassador for our country and an asset to any team. He unfortunately
punctured in the flat stages of the race but his work in stage seven as well as
the emphatic sprint victory was incredibly impressive. He then put in a stint that
made every cycling enthusiast sit up and listen in the time trial today coming
in second behind his teammate Wiggins. If Wiggins does retain his lead and
become the first Briton to arrive in Paris donning yellow then he will owe much
of his victory to Froome who will undoubtedly have even more of a part to play
in the coming stages. I have a strong sense that Froome will win the Tour in
future as he has every skill needed to win the world’s greatest race and in a
few years he will probably lead sky when Wiggins is too old to be their main
leader or he will lead another team and I believe there is potential for a
great rivalry between him and Contador.
However, Froome is the supporting actor in this relationship
for now. Wiggins is taking the main stage and he looks at home in yellow and
Sky reek of a team that is fully confident and determined to protect his
precious jersey and very few people could question their ability to do so.
Wiggins is impressive in the mountains considering his track background and
seems able to match the pace set by almost any in this race. He is far beyond
impressive at time trialling. His prologue was an indication and today’s
performance was a statement. He took a huge chunk of time of that of his main
rival Cadel Evans, the defending champion, who is considered one of the best at
the time trial discipline in the world. This is a real show of power and one cannot
help but ask if he would have bettered Evans in last year’s tour and it begs
the question of how can Evans retain his crown? It would take a huge attack
from him or a heartbreaking failure from Wiggins for him to recapture the
prised garment. The latter seems improbable as Wiggins seems in imperious form
and I do not think Evans can cause too much damage to Wiggins as he looks worse
in the time trial and he has never been an emphatic attacker in the hills. Even
if the unthinkable happens and Wiggins suffers a crash or technical problem
then Evans still has to hold off Froome who looks stronger both in the
mountains and in the race against the clock. Evans is 14 seconds ahead of
Froome but I doubt that he can retain this.
In short Britain looks in a perfect position to win its
first Tour and short of a tragic problem they should hold on to the yellow an
Dave Brailsford can be happy with his strategy as it is unfolding to
perfection.
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