Bradley Wiggins (24 page)

Liquigas-Cannondale show their hand. The entire luminous-green squad gather at the front to lift the pace. Team Sky slip in behind them, confident that it will be their other rivals who feel the
pain.
Domestiques
don’t come with much better CVs than Ivan Basso, and the former Giro d’Italia Champion ratchets the hurt up another notch to stretch the line behind him to
breaking point. His leader Vincenzo Nibali is confident enough to call upon the full power of his team and to demonstrate again that he’s not scared of Wiggins or Team Sky.

But, as Team Sky had wagered, it is not the British team that is suffering. The casualty is the champion, Cadel Evans. This time his BMC team are there in number unlike his horrible isolation at
La Planche des Belles Filles eleven days ago, but they are unable to prevent him from losing contact with the Liquigas-Cannondale-driven group. Worryingly for the Australian and his team, there is
still a full 50km left to race, another first category mountain, and then hammer it well and truly down at the front.

Out of the trees and on to the beautiful gorse-covered moorland over the Aspin, Evans is a minute behind Nibali and Evans, but a concerted pursuit around the hairpins brings him back as they fly
through Arreau and over the confluence of the Nestes. He must be dreading the last climb, the long drag of the Peyresourde. Already tested beyond his limit, he must deal with Wiggins and the Team
Sky dark army as well as the determination of Basso and Nibali’s Liquigas-Cannondale.

Basso lifts the tempo once again, and pop goes Evans. Within minutes the group is like a bowl of Rice Krispies as Van Den Broeck, van Garderen and Zubeldia all crackle and follow Evans out of
the rear. Now Nibali takes up the reins. It’s what he came here to do, hurt the big names and try his best to win this Tour de France in the mountains. It’s a ferocious move and the
field shreds behind him. Only two men remain in pursuit of the bold Italian.

Unfortunately for Nibali, they are the only two men above him on the GC and they are the Team Sky teammates Chris Froome and Bradley Wiggins. Froome takes up the effort smoothly, the loyal
lieutenant once again to his leader Wiggins, pacing the yellow jersey inexorably back on to Nibali’s wheel. For all Liquigas-Cannondale’s fine efforts, they have only succeeded in
leaving their leader exposed against the combined might of the race’s best two riders. He tries again to dump them as they close in, and this time it’s the yellow jersey himself that
bridges for the duo. None shall pass.

In the sort of sight beloved of Tour followers over the decades and befitting of such an epic
parcours,
the top three in the race clear the summit of the last climb together, fighting
each other every pedal turn of the way.

The plunge into Bagnères-de-Luchon cannot split them and they breast the line together, seven minutes after Thomas Voeckler has celebrated another famous solo victory and claimed the
treasured polka dot jersey of best climber. Cadel Evans is sadly not there with them. The tribulations of the Australian as he laboured under the combined pressure of Liquigas-Cannondale and Team
Sky have left him another four minutes adrift by the line. He will not retain his crown of Tour de France Champion now, with more than eight minutes to conjure up on Wiggins from somewhere.

Sean Yates may not be saying it out loud, but he’s eyeing the Team Sky one-two with Wiggins and Froome in Paris on Sunday. He tells the team’s website: ‘It’s got to the
point where whatever we say isn’t doing them justice. This is no ordinary stage race. It’s the Tour de France and we are into the third week now and they have been consistently amazing.
Everyone is hurting in the race but it panned out really well for us today. The break went without anyone really dangerous in it so we could just ride. Liquigas-Cannondale took it up a bit in a bid
to get rid of Cadel. Then Brad and Froomey had the legs to follow Nibali when he tried to get away. It was probably the toughest stage of the Tour so to come through that in the manner we have done
is a great achievement for the team.’

TEAM SKY HAD A
clear plan for 2012. It was pretty similar to 2011, actually, but didn’t involve their leader falling off.

First, they still thought they could add to their team for the Tour. Mark Cavendish was brought in at great expense to extend the image of the British team, but the Tour line-up, especially if
it was to accommodate Cavendish, would need more specialists rather than the great all-rounders like Juan Antonio Flecha and Simon Gerrans. More soldiers to ride alongside Wiggins in the mountains.
In came the Australian pairing of Mick Rogers, recovered from illness, and his prodigiously talented compatriot Richie Porte. In came Kanstantsin Siutsou who had impressed them so much in last
year’s Dauphiné.

The plan was to keep this nucleus together all the way through the spring right up to July. Team spirit would be strong. They would understand each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and
they would always, but always, ride as a team. Marginal gains. Control the controllables. Team Sky were building a crack unit to win the yellow jersey and then protect it.

Their first stop was the relatively low-key Volta ao Algarve in Portugal in an effort to find some warm weather in February. Edvald Boasson Hagen and then Richie Porte both won stages and wore
the leader’s jersey. Porte’s stage win even involved a mountain top finish, which was a pleasing way of introducing himself to his new team. True to their word, Team Sky were riding as
a unit, and it was powerful front running by Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome that had set up the Aussie’s win. The week ended with Brad pipping Tony Martin to take the time trial stage and
Richie Porte finishing a couple of seconds back to keep the jersey and his first overall win for Sky. Not bad for a week’s work in February.

They upped sticks for a much bigger challenge in France. Paris–Nice began much as it had the year before, with Brad finishing second in the time trial. This time he was only one second
behind the winner, Swedish TT specialist Gustav Erik Larsson.

Once upon a time, Brad had been caught out by crosswinds and had vowed it would never happen again. On Stage 2 of Paris–Nice the vanquished became victor, as it was he who saw the danger
and led a select group away from the main field in a similar split to that day into La Grande Motte in 2009. There were still around 80km to go, but when Brad picked up two bonus seconds at the
intermediate sprint with Larsson nowhere to be seen, stuck in the second or third echelon, the jersey was virtually guaranteed. Brad drove the group on almost single-handedly, catching the eye of
Daniel Benson, who was there for cyclingnews.com: ‘At times he would accelerate from the front, creating a gap, before soft pedalling and allowing his companions to follow him once more. This
is a rider at the peak of his game and Sky’s ambition of winning the Tour within five years, something they’ve publicly stepped back from in the last two years, now looks a distinct
possibility.’

Team Sky set about controlling the race and protecting their leader’s six-second lead. It didn’t sound much, but was a gulf, such was Wiggins’s form and the quality of his
support. Alejandro Valverde tried to unseat the yellow jersey on the uphill Stage F4 finish into the Lot
bastide
town of Rodez, but Wiggins matched him without breaking stride. The pair
were side by side in second and third the following day into Mende, where Vacansoleil’s Lieuwe Westra pipped them both and revealed himself to be the real danger on the stiff climb to the
finish.

Team Sky successfully protected his lead all the way to the final time trial, the ascent of the famous Col d’Eze above the glittering blue Mediterranean. Off last, wearing full skinsuit
and time trial helmet in contrast to his less prepared rivals, Wiggins won the stage and the race, completing a thoroughly dominant performance. The nature of the win was perhaps even more
important to the team than the fact that this was their biggest victory to date.

From there it was down to the Volta a Catalunya, or Catalan Week as it used to be known in English-speaking parts. When snow hit the race on the third stage, Team Sky thought it best not to risk
their star’s incredible form and withdrew him from the race. Brad’s training plan, under the watchful eye of personal coach Tim Kerrison, was based upon training more than racing, as
Brad explains: ‘My coach has not been in cycling for long, he’s come from swimming, so I’ve pretty much been training like the swimmers train. I’ve been constantly training
through the year, so it’s not like the traditional way for cycling, which is starting in January fat or in really bad condition, and then building, building and showing form in these
races.’

Sean Yates, Bradley Wiggins and Richie Porte headed to Mount Teide on Tenerife for the pre-summer training camp Team Sky had planned. It would be here over a punishing few weeks they would build
the climbing power needed to overcome the high Alps and Pyrenees in the Tour de France. In the old days, Brad would have been heading for Tenerife for a few days in the sun and a few beers with his
mates, but that was the Brad who couldn’t win the Tour de France.

At 3,718 feet, Teide is the highest point in Spain, despite the fact that it’s a long way from mainland Europe. It’s a perfect place for altitude training, as it’s higher than
virtually any European peaks and a lot dryer. It also has an amazing accommodation complex nestling in its valleys, and has become very popular with the Team Sky visitors.

By May, Bradley Wiggins had only raced three times. He’d won a stage and finished third in one of them, won a stage and won the second race outright, and abandoned the third after two days
due to a blizzard.

Things were looking ominously good.

It’s a rare day in modern grand tour racing when the riders are afforded the luxury of beginning a stage from the place they finished the night before. It’s a
particular beef of the riders not often seen by the public, but transfers between stages are probably the least popular thing about long races.

After the stage finish, when riders may be either boiling or soaking, there are a few formalities. If you have a rider in the leader’s jersey, in Team Sky’s case Bradley Wiggins,
there will be a compulsory visit to the dope testers’ wagon immediately after the finish line, which involves a fight though the scrum of ever-present photographers and journalists. There are
almost 5,000 people with media accreditation on this Tour de France, and it sometimes seems that every single one of them wants to push a microphone under Brad’s nose or a camera in his face
at the same time.

The jersey wearers and stage winner are then presented to the crowd and to a line-up of dignitaries resembling a provincial wedding at the side of the stage. Bernard Hinault will shake hands
many times and the ludicrously anachronistic podium girls will kiss a lot of sweaty pink cheeks. Then there is a wait for the rest of the team to arrive. The
autobus
group of non-climbers
regularly rolls in more than half an hour behind the leaders in the mountains.

In days gone by, the riders would then squeeze into any remaining seats in the team cars and
soigneurs
’ people carriers to be driven off still in their kit, aching legs bunched up
under dashboards or behind the driver’s seat. Being a team leader in the 1990s meant getting to sit in the front.

Then there can be a drive of anything up to a couple of hours to the hotel, which will hopefully be situated close to tomorrow’s start. If only it could be close to the finish, too. With
the race scheduled to finish between 4 p.m. and 4.30 p.m. each night, the traffic is often at its worst.

Hence the advent of the bus. The bigger budget teams began using the luxury coach as a means of transport in the 1990s. Teams would often have two: one a genuine coach for the riders, the other
functioning as a storage unit for bikes and the mechanics’ workshop.

Things went to another level in 2010 when Team Sky arrived on the scene. Now, we wouldn’t want to suggest that professional cyclists are a shallow or immature bunch of folk, but there was
only one topic of conversation around the peloton in the first weeks of that season – ‘Have you seen the Team Sky bus?!’

As part of his legendary attention to detail and desire to make the smallest thing as good as it could possibly be, Dave Brailsford didn’t just buy a bus. He hired a man from Formula One
to come and design the best one possible.

Then he ordered two.

The maximum number of riders for any one race is nine, so the bus has just nine seats in the riders’ cabin, affording them maximum room. The seats swivel inwards for presentations, team
talks, or to watch videos on the HD screen that drops down behind the driver’s seat. The chairs themselves are deep leather armchairs with a console table hidden in the armrest that becomes a
plush platform for a laptop or even – imagine! – a book. There are electronically controlled leg rests, inbuilt Bose headphones and, naturally, a Sky+ TV controller.