Comments on: Well done Bradley Wiggins, ruthless professional

By: Grant Freedom

Grant Freedom — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 21:49:11 +0000

The contrarian in me delights in thanking the Murdochs for funding this achievement.

By: Alisa

Alisa — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 08:39:37 +0000

No – she can’t spare a square…

By: Tim Newman

Tim Newman — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 06:21:05 +0000

Doesn’t he get to bone Sheryl Crowe now, as well?

By: Edward Smith

Edward Smith — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 14:16:55 +0000

I hope he is as ruthless in managing his Post-Olympic income (and tax exposure) as he has been in winning the races.

By: mike

mike — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 10:35:41 +0000

I don’t understand the fascination with “sports” that are essentially nothing more than different kinds of racing – cycling, running, swimming etc – all it is is watching people go from point A to point B, so unless betting is involved I don’t see how anyone can get excited over it.

Vicarious experience might be one explanation – but I’ve done cycling, running and swimming for years and never given a thought to watching their respective competitions on TV. To me they were never anything more than exercise or (in the case of swimming), larking about at the beach.

By: Johnathan Pearce

Johnathan Pearce — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 08:36:50 +0000

An interesting point is that no Frenchman has won the Tour for many years. And yet we often get told that France is a country that invests more public funds into such things.

Anyway, never mind any carping. Wiggins deserves all the plaudits and he seems to be a decent guy as well, although with questionable facial hair. And he does not seem to have that slightly menacing personality that I see in Lance Armstrong.

By: Sam P

Sam P — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 03:46:52 +0000

I’d put it a bit stronger than Michael: Sky Pro Cycling is a commercially sponsored outpost of British Cycling.

Not only are a number of Team Sky riders going straight from the Tour de France to the Olympics, a good chunk of senior management in Sky have the same or similar position in BC, e.g. Dave Brailsford, Shane Sutton, Dr. Steve Peters.

Here’s a quote from Rod Ellingworth (coach on Sky and former coach of one of BC’s Under 23 programs) straight off the Team Sky website: “The Olympics are a big objective for us. This team was set up to support the Olympic programme from the road point of view but also from the track as well.”

Sky really did a number this year at the TdF.
Mark Cavendish won three stages and has an excellent shot at winning the Olympic road race.
Bradley Wiggins won the overall race and two stages (the time trials), and has an excellent shot at winning the Olympic time trial (the road race is pretty flat so highly likely it will end in a sprint, hence Wiggins will be there to help Cavendish win).
Chris Froome won a stage, was second three times (two of them the time trials) and was second in the overall race, and has an excellent chance at silver in the time trial.

By: Michael Jennings

Michael Jennings — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 23:32:29 +0000

Australia and later Britain have had state funded programs to develop Olympic athletes and win gold medals. In both cases, cycling has been a target sport due to the large number of Olympic cycling events, a relative lack of depth – only a few countries are good at it – and the fact that the same athletes can and do compete in multiple events. (All this means that cycling provides good returns if you are running a state funded sports programme with the principal aim of coming as high up the medal table as possible).

Therefore, Australia and Britain have large and high quality state funded coaching programs for cyclists. Athletes such as Bradley Wiggins (a three time Olympic Gold medalist as well as now a Tour de France winner) have benefited from these, and this has helped them in the Tour de France, even though this itself no longer is competed for by national teams and this is not the direct aim of the the state funded coaching programs.

Incidentally, Wiggins has gone straight back into training after winning the Tour de France, rather than holding a large party as would be normal. He has two Olympic events to compete in next week. Although these are not as big a deal as the Tour de France, more gold medals would be icing on the cake, and he owes good performances in these to his state funded coaches.

By: Tedd

Tedd — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 23:05:38 +0000

“In the 1960s the British team…”

No, I saw that, it was the discussion above about coaches that confused me. I thought at first that they were still talking about the Tour de France. Sorry.

By: Patrick Crozier

Patrick Crozier — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 20:01:19 +0000

What gives? Your eyesight I think.

“In the 1960s the British team…”

By: Tedd

Tedd — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 16:04:38 +0000

What Richard said.

But I thought the Tour de France stopped using national teams years ago. The Wikipedia article on it doesn’t say anything about national teams being used now, unless I missed it. What gives?

By: Richard Thomas

Richard Thomas — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 15:45:20 +0000

If anything exemplifies government spending consuming large amounts of money, time and energy to end up back where you started with no useful end, its sport.