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Two years ago Bradley Wiggins was on top of the world, the first ever British Tour de France champion, an Olympic Gold medal won on home soil and even a knighthood.
Fast forward two years and Wiggins is set to miss his second straight Tour de France following a failed bid at the Maglia Rosa in 2013 and a knee injury which ruled him out of a number of races, including the Tour.
In the two years since that first Tour victory, his Sky teammate and compatriot, Chris Froome, has won the 2013 Tour de France in a completely domination fashion and will enter this year’s race as the favourite.
Wiggins will be watching the race from his couch, definitely not where he’d like to be.
So how did such a fall from grace happen and what does the future hold for Sir Bradley?
Wiggins entered the 2012 Tour as one of the favourites and the race played out exactly to script, with Team Sky completely dominating from start to finish, Wiggins finishing over three minutes ahead of teammate Froome, who was a further three minutes ahead of Sky’s nearest rival, Vincenzo Nibali.
Wiggins won two of the three individual time trials and finished second in the third. Sky exerted their dominance on the race during the mountain stages, completely blowing away their opposition by setting a high, constant tempo and maintaining it for the full duration of the climb. One by one their rivals would drop off until there were just two riders left, Froome and Wiggins.
After the highs of the Tour, Wiggins’ attention quickly shifted towards London 2012, where he achieved his goal of claiming gold in the individual time trial, with Froome finishing in third place, just over a minute behind him.
From the tight results in both the Tour and at the Olympics, it was clear that there would be tension between the pair in the coming years, two genuine general classification contenders on the same team rarely works and few expected this one to work either.
Even though the pair both joined the team in 2010, they were recruited for different reasons. Wiggins was the team leader, the number one GC contender who could win a Grand Tour immediately. Froome was the youngster with the goal of developing into a GC contender. Unfortunately for Wiggins, it took him until 2012 to win a Grand Tour and by that point, Froome had proven himself as a GC contender, not only by finishing second in the 2012 Tour but also finishing second in the 2011 Vuelta a España, ahead of Wiggins, the man he was meant to be supporting.
To make things even more complicated for Wiggins, Team Sky signed then 27-year-old Australian Richie Porte in 2012. Porter is another rider who, in the eyes of Team Sky principal Sir David Brailsford, will one day “win a Grand Tour in his own right”. He supported Wiggins in the 2012 Tour and then led Froome to victory last year.
Back to Wiggins, prior to the start of the 2013 season it was clear that Team Sky had made the decision that, at 29 years of age compared to Wiggins’ 34, Chris Froome was the new team leader. Sky announced that Wiggins would ride the Giro d’Italia as the team leader and then ride in support of Froome at the Tour. Wiggins made it known he was not happy about this and that his goal for the season was to complete the Tour-Giro double, winning both races.
The cracks that started to appear during the 2011 Vuelta and 2012 Tour widened. Prior to the start of the 2013 season more details about Wiggins and Froome’s relationship emerged, Wiggins revealed he hadn’t seen Froome for months following the Olympics and Froome that they don’t spend any time together away from racing – not even training together.
To make matters worse, Froome employed the coach who led Wiggins to his 2012 Tour victory prior to the 2013 race.
Wiggins’ hopes of completing the Giro-Tour double were ruined when he suffered a number of crashes in the Giro’s opening week, and then withdrew due to a chest infection. It was then revealed that Wiggins was suffering from a knee injury and that he would not be contesting the 2013 Tour de France.
Understanding his new role in the team, Wiggins announced prior to the start of the 2014 season that his goals for this season were the Tour of California, which he won, the World Time Trial Championships, and to act as support to Froome in the Tour. However Froome would not have a bar of it, even though Wiggins is one of the best cyclists in the world. Froome held too many fears about Wiggins undermining him and making his own play for the Maillot Jaune.
Sky has a couple of options for the coming few years, in the enviable position of having three genuine GC contenders on their team. They could potentially target Froome, Porte and Wiggins at one Grand Tour each. This would ensure that Wiggins and Froome are kept apart and if the rider that raced the Giro chose to act as support in the Tour or Vuelta, it is likely they would not have enough energy to overcome their fresh teammate anyway.
If Sky was to adopt this technique, they could dominate the Grand Tours for the next couple of years. Sky has partially adopted this strategy by announcing that Porte will lead the team in next year’s Giro d’Italia. This is a strategy that has been implemented by BMC, which designated the Giro d’Italia as Cadel Evans’ race and the Tour as Tejay van Garderen’s.
The other option for Sky and Wiggins is a parting of ways, or a conscious uncoupling, as fellow Brit Chris Martin would label it. Wiggins is off contract at the end of this season and has been linked with a number of other teams, most notably Australian team Orica-GreenEDGE.
Wiggins has a strong relationship with OGE director Matt White, having worked with him in the past, and OGE is looking for an established GC rider to take the team from stage winners to General Classification winners. However Wiggins’ mentor, Australian Shane Sutton, revealed it is unlikely that Wiggins will depart Team Sky at the end of the season.
Interestingly, Froome was handed a three-year contract extension at the end of last year, while Porte has revealed he will probably leave the team when his contract expires at the end of next year in order to become an undisputed team leader.
From OGE’s perspective, it would probably be a wiser move to hold off on their discussions with Wiggins in the hope of signing Porte a year later, however they don’t want to miss out on both men.
Wiggins is undoubtedly still one of the best cyclists in the world and at the age of 34 has at least another three years of high quality cycling left in him. Unfortunately, his team has taken a change of direction, opting to favour the young rider who can deliver victories for possibly another ten years.
Wiggins must find himself a team that will allow him to showcase his talents, ride to the best of his ability, and win Grand Tours. If that team is Sky, he should stay with Team Sky.
However, if Team Sky is not able to deliver Wiggins with those opportunities, it is time to move on.
Follow Cameron on Twitter @fromthesheds
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