Bradley Wiggins wins Tour de France 2012

As Bradley Wiggins was interviewed by the Champs Elysees after finally wining the great race, Ned Boulting commentated that Wiggins and his Team have set so many historical precedents in the past few week, he must be running out of suitable quotes.

But, though Wiggins may be sometimes short with journalists, he never seems short of the odd quip. It’s not many Tour winners, who turn to the crowd after receiving the accolades and say:

“OK, now it’s time to draw the raffle.”

The odd expletive aside, I think Wiggins has come across very well in the past three weeks. He’s not a natural, smooth talking, media trained person. But, that is a relief in the media age of soundbites and carefully prepared answers. Whatever others say, I’ve always felt you can feel the honesty of an athlete by what they say, who they work with and how they conduct themselves. In that regard, it is a supreme achievement to win the tour clean. There have been 15 winners of the tour in the past 30 odd years. – The number is small, and the number who you would put your house on being clean, is even smaller. Less than a decade ago, I was completely disgusted with pro cycling – even if I’d had the talent to turn pro, I wouldn’t have wanted to. The greatest achievement of recent years, is not just two British cyclists on the podium, but the realisation that it is possible for a ‘clean’ approach to cycling to work. Dave Brailsford should get more than an honourable mention alongside Wiggins.

I was watching the final stage on ITV1 (who would have thought cycling on mainstream TV! and ITV must be very grateful to Team Sky and Murdoch’s millions – nice irony there.) There was a very good, short interview with Wiggins. He was getting a final massage, the day after winning the final time trial. He just spoke very honestly and said – he just wanted to win for the right reasons. I can’t remember the exact words, but my impression was listening to someone who had nothing to hide, someone who had worked very hard, hoped to achieve something memorable and hoped to inspire others – exactly what sport is supposed to be about.

Suddenly every British journalist has become an expert on road cycling. Many of these ‘cycling experts’ are now debating whether this is the greatest British sporting moment since Bunny Austin reached the Wimbledon’s final 75 years ago. I don’t know how you compare a three week cycling race, to a hat-trick in the world cup final or running a mile under 4 minutes, I’ll leave that one to the pundits. But, as a cyclist, and long suffering British sports fan, it is a quite an achievement.

(By the way 75 years ago Charles Holland was Britain’s first entrant to the Tour de France. He went with a team of three and his epic adventure ended when his pump broke leaving him on the side of a French road (or something like that) Suffice to say, he didn’t have an annual budget of £25 million to back him up.

Is Wiggin’s Tour de France – Britain’s  Greatest Sporting Achievement?

By the way, if you want to vote, the Telegraph have a poll. Currently 73% have voted – yes it is Britain’s greatest sporting achievement.

Despite, his image as Colonel Wiggo – a real life Mod. Up on the steps of the Champs-Élysées, Wiggins looked suitably emotionally. Whether that was because of winning the famous race or the pain of listening to a painfully high operatic rendition of ‘God Save the Queen’ I’m not sure. But, this time the fat lady really was singing, and it was time to count the eggs and stage victories.

Except not quite. – The nation expects, and it’s six days to the Olympic road race. No knees up and night outs in Kilburn for Wiggins just yet.

10. Things I Loved About the 2012 Tour

1. Bradley Wiggins
2. Chris Froome
3. Mark Cavendish winning 3 stages.
4. Wiggin’s sideburns
5. Wiggins tribute to Tommy Voeklers’s King of the Mountain jersey, aka RAF symbol.
6. Three donkeys in the team leaders uniform
7. Cycling on page one of newspapers for all the right reasons.
8. The hope that British cycling success, might just slightly improve conditions on British roads.
9. Seeing part of Paris, become ‘Brit corner’ – full of
10. Seeing Chris Boardman getting slightly emotional on the Champs Elysees.

The Wiggins Effect

Even before Wiggins won, Evans Cycles announced record sales figures for the first half of July.

“We were less than half way through July, but had already sold close to the total bikes sold in June. Whilst we expect to see growth in July due to warmer weather and the TdF throwing the spotlight on our sport, this year we are pleasantly surprised by the surge in sales. Why are we surprised? Because we haven’t had any assistance from the weather this year, it shows that the passion people have for the sport outweighs the negative impact of the weather.”

It will be interesting to see the effect on bike sales at the end of July.

The big question is perhaps whether this can translate into success on the commuting routes of London and Birmingham – that would be a real legacy, but it will need more than hardwork, and big budget from Team Sky.

How Did Wiggins Achieve his win?

1. Training Bradley Wiggins training schedule
2. Being a supreme athlete – 3 times Olympic gold medallist on the track before switching to road.
3. Great back up from Team Sky
4. A parcours that suited wiggins with close to 100Km of time trials
5. A more level playing field. The days of riders turning up to the tour with hematocrit  blood cell counts of 60% (normal are in low 40%) are hopefully over. Biological passports and drug testing has helped change the culture in the tour.

Final Tour de France 2012 Standings

1. Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Sky Procycling – 87:34:42
2. Christopher Froome (GBr) Sky Procycling @ 0:03:21
3. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale @ 0:06:19
4. Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Lotto Belisol Team @ 0:10:15
5. Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team @ 0:11:04