Close menu

Tour de France: Bradley Wiggins' joy at leading tempered by caution

Last updated on .From the section Cyclingcomments131

Tour de France leader Bradley Wiggins says he is in a "fantastic position" after his impressive stage-nine time trial victory on Monday.

But Wiggins, who is aiming to become the first Briton to win the race, is wary of reigning champion Cadel Evans.

"It's a fantastic position to be in but I'm a human, not a machine, and there's always the possibility of a bad day or a crash," said Wiggins.

"Cadel is not going to give up before we get to Paris."

Team Sky rider Wiggins, 32, claimed his first stage victory of the Tour with his time trial success and, in the process, extended his overall lead over Australian Evans to one minute and 53 seconds.

Riding last on the 41.5km route from Arc et Senans to Besancon, Wiggins clocked 51 minutes 24 seconds to beat Team Sky team-mate and fellow Briton Chris Froome by 35 seconds.

Switzerland's Fabian Cancellara, who held the yellow jersey before Wiggins, was third, while Evans finished in sixth.

Froome is now third in the overall standings, two minutes and seven seconds adrift of the lead.

The riders have a rest day on Tuesday, when Wiggins intends to reflect on his performance so far.

The triple Olympic champion took the yellow jersey on Saturday on the Tour's first summit finish and held it for the next two days through Porrentruy on Sunday and then Monday's time trial.

"I struggled a little bit at that mountain summit the other day when I took the jersey," he said.

"I didn't sleep very well that night. I allowed the emotion of taking the jersey to slightly get to me. But that's what it's all about, that's why I do this sport, that's why I love it and that's why I train as hard as I do.

"Fortunately we've got a rest day, so a little bit more time to let it all sink in."

Evans is now only 14 seconds ahead of Froome, but the BMC Racing rider remains optimistic, with the Tour set to move into the high mountains before finishing in Paris on Sunday, 22 July.

"There's still a lot more racing to be done before Paris," he said.

Stage 10 on Wednesday covers 195km from Macon to Bellegarde-sur-Valserine and includes the Col du Grand Colombier. At 17.4km long, the hors categorie climb has an average gradient of 7.1% but peaks of 12%.

Comments

Join the conversation

These comments are now closed.

131 comments

  • Comment posted by dyesie, at 08:05 10 Jul 2012

    What would be senseless would be to dilute the team strength supporting two riders. Wiggo is team leader and proved himself again yesterday. All efforts, including Froome's are rightly focused on getting him to Paris in yellow. The competition we want to see is with BMC and the rest. Froome will no doubt have his day. I'd keep quite on sports you clearly know nothing about...

  • Comment posted by Simster, at 12:01 10 Jul 2012

    Can we have some MORE coverage on Wiggins and Le Tour please. He is WINNING in one of the biggest annual sporting events of the summer and yet Le Tour barely features on the BBC Sport front page. Sort it out BBC, it is shameful!

  • Comment posted by Alun Rees, at 08:52 10 Jul 2012

    Not much of a cyclists fan, but seeing the like of Cavendish and Wiggins winning stages has changed my perception. These two has galvanised the sport in Britain. More people are taking notice that Britain can challenge the best in the World and in the most challenge competition of all the Tour de France. I hope that Wiggins remains free of any danger and finish in Paris wearing the Yellow Jersey.

  • Comment posted by corderym, at 09:03 10 Jul 2012

    With a Brit doing so well it amazes me as to the lack of general coverage in the press. Bradley had the Yellow jersey on Sunday but was completely ignored in favour of wall to wall coverage of someone coming second.
    As role models these guys are second to none. No petulant sulking, assaulting line judges over a missed shot or racist taunting here. Just great teamwork and sheer guts.

  • Comment posted by U14638038, at 13:33 10 Jul 2012

    People who say Froome should be given a chance to win just don't understand the sport.

    Look at Cavendish last year, HTC worked as a team so that he could win the green jersey.

    It's like a football team providing the support for the striker to score the goals. In the end the whole Sky Team are winners if/when Wiggins wins the yellow jersey.

  • Comment posted by U15337086, at 09:06 10 Jul 2012

    Perhaps "john06" would like to explain his comment regarding "Aircar" or withdraw it?

  • Comment posted by U15337536, at 15:28 10 Jul 2012

    Ive been supporting Wiggins for years, and I support him even more now he's had his twitter outburst. Internet warrioring is just poor form.
    But we'll see. He's passed the hill test, passed the TT, now he has to prove he can do the high mountains. Andy Schleck just doesnt look like he'll win the TDF. Agree it would look better this year with Contador in it.

  • Comment posted by U15126675, at 11:12 10 Jul 2012

    Brilliant. We wait a hundred years for a challenger, now we get 2 of them!

    Talk about waiting for a bus :-)

  • Comment posted by U14748538, at 10:35 10 Jul 2012

    Sky should let there riders ride? Are you guys mad, Sky came here with the strongest team so they could dominate the tour from start to finish and that is what they will do. Froome will get his opportunities to win but right now the ability for sky to have more riders at the tough points in the race is what separates them from BMC and Liquigas. Why on earth would they weaken their hand?

  • Comment posted by U15047575, at 08:45 10 Jul 2012

    Tony Mwangi. I know you are probably a Froome supporter and why not. However, if he and Wiggins were to start battling over the lead, possibly niether would win in Paris. Wiggins will have his work cut out battling other teams GC contenders, he doesn't want to be watching his own team as well.

  • Comment posted by U13654418, at 07:32 10 Jul 2012

    He's missed an opportunity there. I estimate if he'd shaved those sideburns off he could have been a further 30 seconds ahead.

  • Comment posted by Rickydavie, at 16:50 10 Jul 2012

    Your doing a great job Bradley, I am agnostic but I am praying you can keep your form and do not have any accidents, punctures or bike malfunctions.
    Could the riff raff stop spouting their worthless trite and use this comment board to put constructive comments on.

  • Comment posted by U14428862, at 15:53 10 Jul 2012

    @ drug sceptics - who always want to take over blogs - cycling has had problems, still has. As do many other sports. At least it is trying, publicly, to address them and is, I would say, making good progress.
    Compare to, say, tennis and a certain sister's failure to provide a sample a few years ago. No major public acknowledgment by WTA, nor sanction. Similar in cycling yields career lost.

  • Comment posted by U14966550, at 13:03 10 Jul 2012

    In 2007, professional wrestler John Cena took part in a CNN interview that lasted two hours. The only clip they used was one in which they asked if he had take steroids, and edited the footage to make it look as if he was cockily challenging them to prove it. In reality, his answer was "absolutely not", and the 'challenge' was talking about the easily-manipulated cynicism of the public. XD

  • Comment posted by U14537511, at 12:41 10 Jul 2012

    Johno6's "contributions" to this comments thread are the perfect example of what Wiggo was riposting to the other day - they believe they're entitled to freedom of speech that only involves slur, slander and innuendo.
    Happy to see most of his postings have been moderated and removed.
    Troll off and find your stone to crawl back under - your life is under there somewhere.

  • Comment posted by Justin150, at 12:27 10 Jul 2012

    It is, compared to many other sports, a pleasure to watch the two leading contenders in Wiggins and Evans have such respect and politeness for each other.

  • Comment posted by dom, at 11:15 10 Jul 2012

    For a Brit to will le tour will be an achievement to rank with the very highest, and will cement British cycling as the best in the world at the moment. It is like the Schleck brothers, if Wiggins falters, or has an incident, then Froome may be allowed to challenge for the GC, but Wiggo is the team leader and all the team will have to work to ensure he wins.

  • Comment posted by U3125334, at 10:50 10 Jul 2012

    On the doping point its worth bearing in mind in races this year in general overall times and speeds are soemwhat down on a few years ago I believe which is almost certainly down to the race being cleaner. i don't think there is any chance Sky are doping, wiggins has always been a time trail machine and clearly still finds the mountains tougher than some other GC riders so no suprises really

  • Comment posted by TrojanOtter, at 10:15 10 Jul 2012

    john06, Wiggo has a nice line on you.
    http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/tour-de-france/533790/wiggins-lashes-out-after-doping-accusations.html

  • Comment posted by Slowerpaceoflife, at 10:01 10 Jul 2012

    British cycling is pushing the frontiers of cycling with diet & state of the art training methods, Wiggo & Froome are crystal clear clean. Wiggins has won three tours already this season & has been tested at all three events, not only that, Top cyclist are tested now through the close season. He has nothing to defend himself about.

Top Stories