That’s my conclusion after he lost a bunch of time on stage seven. Maybe he should spend less time climbing volcanoes in Tenerife and more time skittering around in Lancashire, near home.
Bradley Wiggins fell off his bike on a corner and he lost a minute and a half on his main rivals. It’s worth noting that those things are not the same. Vincenzo Nibali also fell off – and rather more spectacularly – but he now lies second in the general classification.
Why did Wiggins lose so much time?
Primarily because he was timid on the descents, but he wasn’t all that on the steep climbs either. He was playing catch-up when he fell because he’d already been distanced. After hitting the deck, he then grannied along losing even more time.
Even worse, Team Sky had Rigoberto Uran and Sergio Henao wait for him, which basically just meant maiming their own general classification hopes for no real reason because they didn’t really achieve much with regards to helping him along.
What next?
Wiggins will hope to make huge time gains in Saturday’s time trial, but we’re seeing how vulnerable he is with almost his entire offensive centred on just one stage. There are plenty more steep climbs and I daresay there’ll be the odd wet descent as well. He’ll need enormous time gaps in the time trial unless he can successfully erode his rivals on a long, steady climb in the high mountains later in the race.
Did anyone else lose time?
Domenico Pozzovivo lost another 40-odd seconds, which is hardly surprising because he doesn’t like ANYTHING. Surprisingly, he’s only two minutes down on the general classification – I thought it was way more.
Mostly everything’s the same other than that, although Uran and Henao lost about 10 seconds on top of what Wiggins lost. What happened to Sky’s policy of having a back-up rider also competing for the general classification, by the way?
Anyone? No? They’re just pinning the whole three-week race on Wiggins in the time trial then, eh? No pressure, Brad.
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