Bradley Wiggins has just crashed and has had to abandon the Tour de France, first sign looks like it could be his collarbone.
How sad.
Ian H
Wiggins out of tour
Moderator: Moderators
Wiggins out of tour
Are we there yet
"Surprising the amount of crashing there is."
Not really - the combination of bad weather, narrow roads and first week nerves..........
Plus the organisers idea that a few first week difficult/uphill finishes would upset the predictability of the usual bunch sprints and create some great telly. It certainly did that. As I think Bernard Eissel was commenting on after helping to deliver Cav to the line today, its a bit disrespectful for the GC contenders to be all trying to get to the front so as not to lose a couple of seconds here or there - not because they have no right to be there but because there is only so much room on the road! Afterall it just creates a load of stress for the whole field when they could be just sitting in and letting the sprint teams do all the work. They'll all be knackered when they get to the mountains and of those there is only Cadel Evans who hasnt already hit the tarmac?
As for Brad it is a great shame but that is Pro cycling as it is now - look at the deaths, near deaths and serious injuries so far this year. The Tour certainly is great telly but for a rider looks an absolute nightmare!
Not really - the combination of bad weather, narrow roads and first week nerves..........
Plus the organisers idea that a few first week difficult/uphill finishes would upset the predictability of the usual bunch sprints and create some great telly. It certainly did that. As I think Bernard Eissel was commenting on after helping to deliver Cav to the line today, its a bit disrespectful for the GC contenders to be all trying to get to the front so as not to lose a couple of seconds here or there - not because they have no right to be there but because there is only so much room on the road! Afterall it just creates a load of stress for the whole field when they could be just sitting in and letting the sprint teams do all the work. They'll all be knackered when they get to the mountains and of those there is only Cadel Evans who hasnt already hit the tarmac?
As for Brad it is a great shame but that is Pro cycling as it is now - look at the deaths, near deaths and serious injuries so far this year. The Tour certainly is great telly but for a rider looks an absolute nightmare!
Not sure it's ever been different. Ocana, Riviere etc - crashes have always been a part of pro racing/Le Tour. It is a shame that this year's tour has been so badly affected though. I was really looking forward to Gesink, Wiggins, VBD et al challenging the Contador/Schleck duopoly. Now Evans is looking the only likely challenger unless Basso or Cunego have been sandbagging...