The dismantling of Bradley Wiggins

The greatest tragedy of professional cycling after Lance Armstrong is Bradley Wiggins.

Sir Bradley Wiggins, Commander of the Order British Empire, the winningest British Olympian (7 medals) and Tour de France champion (2012), may not ride the Tour de France in team SKY colors. Except for 3-4 teams today, Wiggins would ride as the undisputed leader he would wish to ride. But he doesn’t want to ride for any time right now. He wants to ride for teamSKY, the most successful British team in history. But unless current SKY rider ‘numero uno’ and defending champion Chris Froome is incapacitated, the Commander of the Order British Empire will be a mere spectator in a sport he once owned a couple of years ago.

If Wiggins was a tennis player, John McEnroe would have dubbed him as the “one-slam-wonder”.  If he was a musician, he would have been the Starland Vocal Band, the group that produced a #1 song in the mid 70’s titled, “Afternoon Delight” and nothing since. Of course, until Wiggins retires, there’s still a chance of him winning the yellow jersey in Paris but its getting slimmer by the year.

As I have written before, cycling is a team sport with one winner. Confused? Well, the team is composed of nine riders but only one rider is supposed to win, the rest are domestiques. When Wiggins won his Tour in 2012, everyone thought that his super domestique, Froome, was by far the stronger and the better rider. But Froome, a native of Kenya but a child of British parents, wasn’t the apple in the public eyes back then. Wiggins was the face of team SKY. In fact, team SKY had to controversially bought out his contract with GARMIN to make him the face of SKY and British Cycling. So it was a no brainer that Wiggins should have the full support of the team.

So when 2013 came, SKY had no choice (it was really a business choice at this time) but to replace Wiggins with Froome. Froome, although not as popular as Wiggins, was the better climber and getting better at races against the clock, which was Wiggins territory. At 24yo, he was also 8 years younger than Wiggins.

It wasn’t easy for SKY to tell Wiggins and the cycling world that he wasn’t “the man” anymore, but they made the right choice. Wiggins rode the Girod’Italia depressed and quit. Except for his win in the Tour of Britain and 4 ITT’s, his 2013 season was a disaster.Froome, on his end, overwhelmed everyone in the Tour.

So, its not a surprise that Froome is SKY’s leader for this years Tour. Despite a good showing in Paris-Roubaix and winning in the Tour of California, SKY is still not convinced that Wiggins is the better rider than Froome against Contador and Vincenzo Nibali.

Then why not put Wiggins on the team as a domestique? With the Tour going to England this year, it would be a great opportunity for Wiggins to say thanks to his countrymen. However, its not going to happen. We all know when two leaders are on the same team going for the same prize. SKY don’t want a repeat of the 1986 Tour, Lemond vs. Hinault or what happened in 2012, when Froome attacked Wiggins.

Wiggins contract with SKY ends this year and he has a lot of suitors for next year. But he won’t be getting the USD4 million/year contract anymore he got from SKY.

Wiggins crash from the zenith of the sport is hard. Yellow jersey winner to begging for a ride in the Tour.Hero to zero. There is a saying that its not how hard you fall, but how you stand back up again. Lets see if Bradley Wiggins can reassemble himself.