With the class of a true champion, Bradley Wiggins won Time Trial Olympic Gold AND The Yellow Jersey in the 2012 Tour de France. The World Professional Cycling Scene now realizes that he won in a way that has no peers except Armstrong, Coppi and Merckx. He also now gets the acclaim for being the first Briton to do so. He showed the time trialling ability of Indurain but with a lot more charisma. He showed the consistent climbing class of Armstrong but had more to offer back to his team on the flat. Witness his amazing lead-out of Mark Cavendish in the last kilometre in Paris as they positioned for the prestigious sprint up The Champs Elysses. And he was streets ahead of those thin hill climbers who, over many years, just rested concealed in the peleton, waiting until everyone else was having a bad day in the mountains, to sometimes steal several minutes lead. Often the race was made for the lightweight freaks, until Armstrong's team ethic and pacemakers started to nullify the chances for the stick-thin guys, to break away and then catch the race napping as they hit the grand cols in the high mountains.
Bradley Wiggins won Olympic Gold And The Tour De France with real class and panache. And he did it for five primary reasons:
Talent - it was noticed from teenage wins that he had the height, the leg length and the cardio-vascular engine to create very high pedalling cadence in high gears and so maintain a consistent high velocity. Also the need to win is often in your DNA. Some people are born champions, often because they are just such bad losers. In Bradley's case this is partly true, but he also had something positive to prove from his childhood. In the same situation as with Lance Armstrong, his loving Mum but a distant biological father seems to spark that extra level of a will to win. And win again and again. His earlier victories at Olympic and World levels had then proved an exclusive thoroughbred quality, for cycling power against the clock.
Focus - this year there was only one objective, with no others. The track racing calendar was forgotten. The London Olympics were merely an interesting bonus, a follow-on week in the racing calendar, to delay the normal post-Tour celebrations. But everything was focused on Le Tour.
Experience - Wiggins knows that his Tour de France crash and quitting last year, due to a broken collar bone, gave him extra drive this year. It should be remembered that he was already 'mixing-it' with the elite climbers, as long ago as three years' ago. When he held his own until the very final attacks on the Mont Ventoux with the exhalted company of Schleck, Contador and The Great Armstrong, Wiggins showed his latent class. Plus it gave him real inspiration to climb those Grand Cols in his own way - avoiding the unpredictability of Alberto Contador's (allegedly artificially stimulated) uphill attacks or the short-term climbing bursts of Luxembourg's star Andy Schleck and, this year, the Italian Nibali.
Professionalism - this was reflected by the whole Team Sky Racing Team set-up. Their selection of team members, stringent mental and physical preparation in a whole season's perfect racing programme, caused three other stage-race victories to come Bradley's way. Plus the single-minded attitude and planning of the whole team set-up. However, it also needed Wiggins himself, to take his rigid outspoken self-discipline and focus to a new level. This was not easy with his new-found wealth and his young family at home, which he hardly saw during long nights of recuperation in corporate hotels through arduous training camps and long stage races. But his level or organised professional self-discipline really improved.
Belief - a new level of self-belief came from the realization that he had everything in his physical make-up to realize the ultimate road cyclists dream. This was brilliantly nurtured by his support team but also came from a rising stature and respect among the super-elite cadre of the world's top riders. Slowing the peleton after Cadel Evans' misfortune was not just sportsmanship but the action of someone who realized he was "Le Patron" at last.
There may just be one more year for Bradley to repeat this dominant victory again. But other teams and other Grand Tour contenders will find it very hard, in the short term, to establish these five factors for his success .
Bradley Wiggins won Olympic Gold And The Tour De France with real class and panache. And he did it for five primary reasons:
Talent - it was noticed from teenage wins that he had the height, the leg length and the cardio-vascular engine to create very high pedalling cadence in high gears and so maintain a consistent high velocity. Also the need to win is often in your DNA. Some people are born champions, often because they are just such bad losers. In Bradley's case this is partly true, but he also had something positive to prove from his childhood. In the same situation as with Lance Armstrong, his loving Mum but a distant biological father seems to spark that extra level of a will to win. And win again and again. His earlier victories at Olympic and World levels had then proved an exclusive thoroughbred quality, for cycling power against the clock.
Focus - this year there was only one objective, with no others. The track racing calendar was forgotten. The London Olympics were merely an interesting bonus, a follow-on week in the racing calendar, to delay the normal post-Tour celebrations. But everything was focused on Le Tour.
Experience - Wiggins knows that his Tour de France crash and quitting last year, due to a broken collar bone, gave him extra drive this year. It should be remembered that he was already 'mixing-it' with the elite climbers, as long ago as three years' ago. When he held his own until the very final attacks on the Mont Ventoux with the exhalted company of Schleck, Contador and The Great Armstrong, Wiggins showed his latent class. Plus it gave him real inspiration to climb those Grand Cols in his own way - avoiding the unpredictability of Alberto Contador's (allegedly artificially stimulated) uphill attacks or the short-term climbing bursts of Luxembourg's star Andy Schleck and, this year, the Italian Nibali.
Professionalism - this was reflected by the whole Team Sky Racing Team set-up. Their selection of team members, stringent mental and physical preparation in a whole season's perfect racing programme, caused three other stage-race victories to come Bradley's way. Plus the single-minded attitude and planning of the whole team set-up. However, it also needed Wiggins himself, to take his rigid outspoken self-discipline and focus to a new level. This was not easy with his new-found wealth and his young family at home, which he hardly saw during long nights of recuperation in corporate hotels through arduous training camps and long stage races. But his level or organised professional self-discipline really improved.
Belief - a new level of self-belief came from the realization that he had everything in his physical make-up to realize the ultimate road cyclists dream. This was brilliantly nurtured by his support team but also came from a rising stature and respect among the super-elite cadre of the world's top riders. Slowing the peleton after Cadel Evans' misfortune was not just sportsmanship but the action of someone who realized he was "Le Patron" at last.
There may just be one more year for Bradley to repeat this dominant victory again. But other teams and other Grand Tour contenders will find it very hard, in the short term, to establish these five factors for his success .
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