AFTER DISAPPOINTMENT at Euro 2012 and Andy Murray’s tears at Wimbledon, something special is brewing in France where Bradley Wiggins took a massive step towards becoming Britain’s first Tour de France winner after taking the race’s first long time trial.
Over the 41.5kms between Arc-et-Senans and Besancon, Wiggins finished 35 seconds ahead of his Sky team-mate Chris Froome, while all the other pretenders to overall victory lost time in amounts that varied from merely worrying to catastrophic.
For Wiggins and Froome, this a joint performance that will have resonances that last until 10 days after the Tour finishes, when the pair represent Britain in the individual time trial at the London Olympics.
Here, the finest time triallist of recent years, the Swiss Fabian Cancellara, finished nearly a minute behind Wiggins, while the reigning world time-trial champion, Tony Martin of Germany, came 12th, two minutes and 16 seconds back, albeit while nursing a broken wrist and in spite of an early puncture.
Most importantly for the short term, Wiggins extended his advantage over the defending Tour de France champion, Cadel Evans, from 10 seconds to one minute and 53 seconds, meaning that, with another even longer time trial to come before the finish in Paris – 53.5kms between Bonneval and Chartres on the final Saturday – the Australian now has no option but to attack in the mountains and gain several minutes on the Briton.
It came after Sky dominated the first mountain-top finish of the race on Friday, when Froome won the stage and Wiggins took the overall lead.
This was, said Wiggins, the best time-trial he has ridden in a career that includes a silver medal at last year’s world championships and four other time-trial victories this season as well as the prologue time trial at the 2010 Giro d’Italia.
“It was perfect. It’s like Christmas winning the stage as well. I’m pleased with the way I put the ride together and the way I put the whole day together. The noise was incredible coming down the start ramp but I didn’t overreact and go out too hard I’m relieved and proud of myself for doing it.”
The triple Olympic gold medallist said that the length of time he has spent in the stretched-out time-trial position en route to winning his three Olympic golds on the track have made it second nature for him to turn on the power in a time trial on the road.
It showed here: his style was impeccable throughout, with the spindly legs that have earned him the nickname “Sticks” churning with barely a sign of the effort needed to keep moving at more than 30mph up and down mountains, his back level and poised, and his gaunt face with its JPR Williams sideburns never moving beneath his aerodynamic crash helmet. He gained time rapidly on Evans early on, opening a 45 second gap after only 11km, but the Australian rallied, fortunately for his chances of taking the Tour.
Even so, this was a performance that left the rest of the field with an epic amount of work to do. Behind Evans, only the Italian Vincenzo Nibali, the Russian Denis Menchov and the Spaniard Haimar Zubeldia are within three minutes and 30 seconds of Wiggins.
The task that faces them once the race enters the Alps after today’s rest day is simply colossal and all of them must face the fact that whatever seconds they may gain, Wiggins has another time trial at the end of the Tour in which to redress the balance.
Meanwhile, Team Sky principal Dave Brailsford has given his 100 per cent backing to Wiggins’ expletive-laden response to insinuations that the team’s success was the result of doping. Wiggins hit back at the team’s anonymous critics in an interview on Sunday night. “The guy’s just got off his bike after a very, very hard six-hour stage, he’s stuffed, he comes in and then he gets asked if he’s cheating,” Brailsford said. “I totally agree with the sentiment and I like the passion, I back him 100 per cent.
“There may be a few choice words language-wise that you could change but, apart from that, the sentiment was spot-on as far as I’m concerned and there is no issue whatsoever for me.”
At the race leader’s post-stage press conference, Wiggins was asked about Team Sky’s performance on stage seven and the cynics who suggest riders have to take drugs to win the Tour. Wiggins said: “I say they’re just f*****g w*****s. I cannot be doing with people like that. It justifies their own bone-idleness because they can’t ever imagine applying themselves to do anything in their lives.
“It’s easy for them to sit under a pseudonym on Twitter and write that sort of s**t, rather than get off their arses in their own lives and apply themselves and work hard at something and achieve something.
“And that’s ultimately it. C***s.”
STAGE NINE: Arc-et-Senans to Besançon 41.5kms
1 Bradley Wiggins (Brit) Sky Procycling 51mins 24secs, 2 Christopher Froome (Brit) Sky Procycling at 35secs, 3 Fabian Cancellara (Swi) RadioShack-Nissan at 57, 4 Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team at 1.06, 5 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Omega Pharma-QuickStep at 1.24, 6 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team at 1.43, 7 Peter Velits (Svk) Omega Pharma-QuickStep at 1.59, 8 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale at 2.07, 9 Denis Menchov (Rus) Katusha Team at 2.08, 10 Andreas Kloden (Ger) RadioShack-Nissan at 2.09. Irish: 23 Nicolas Roche (AG2R La Mondiale) at 3 mins 8 secs; 51 Daniel Martin (Garmin Sharp) at 4 mins 46 secs.
General classification
1 Bradley Wiggins (Brit) Sky Procycling 39hrs 9mins 20secs, 2 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team at 1min 53secs, 3 Christopher Froome (Brit) Sky Procycling at 2.07, 4 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale at 2.23, 5 Denis Menchov (Rus) Katusha Team at 3.02, 6 Haimar Zubeldia Agirre (Spa) RadioShack-Nissan at 3.19, 7 Maxime Monfort (Bel) RadioShack-Nissan at 4.23, 8 Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team at 5.14, 9 Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Lotto Belisol Team at 5.20, 10 Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R La Mondiale at 5 mins 29 secs. Other Irish: 67 Daniel Martin (Garmin Sharp) at 32 mins 3 secs.
Mountains
1 Fredrik Kessiakoff (Swe) Astana 21, 2 Chris Froome (Brit) Team Sky 20, 3 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing 18, 4 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ 16, 5 Bradley Wiggins (Brit) Team Sky 12, 6. Michael Morkov (Den) Saxo Bank 9.
Points
1 Peter Sagan (Slov) Liquigas 217, 2 Matthew Goss (Aus) Orica 185, 3 Andre Greipel (Ger) Lotto 172, 4 Mark Cavendish (Brit) Team Sky 129, 5 Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Lampre 109, 6 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Team Sky 95.
Rest day today.
Stage 10 (tomorrow) Mâcon to Bellegarde-sur-Valserine, 194.5kms
* Guardian Service
