Bradley Wiggins tips Chris Froome to win fifth title
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Updated 01/04/2019 at 07:52 GMT
Chris Froome will still be the man to beat at this year’s Tour de France despite a difficult start to the 2019 season, with Bradley Wiggins backing “the greatest Tour rider of our generation” to win a record-equalling fifth yellow jersey.
Chris Froome GBR of Team Sky in Barcelona
Image credit: Getty Images
Froome, 33, has opted against defending his Giro d’Italia title in May to train his focus on the Tour, where he hopes to join Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain on the list of Tour immortals with a fifth title.
But 2019 has not been kind to Froome so far. He crashed on Stage Five of the Tour of Colombia in February and then suffered a nasty case of road rash during the Tour of Catalunya when he came down heavily on Stage Two, eventually finishing well over an hour down in GC in a race where young pretender and team-mate Egan Bernal snatched a place on the podium.
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Froome survives crash on Tour of Catalunya
In a potentially symbolic moment after the end of Stage 5, Froome even gave Bernal a ride on his handlebars after the Colombia suffered a mechanical
But if there is to be a shift in the power dynamics at Team Sky, soon to be Team Ineos, it will not be this year, according to Wiggins. Speaking on episode three of the new series of The Bradley Wiggins Show, available on all major podcast platforms this Monday morning, he said Froome is still the favourite for the Tour.
“I don't think he's going to be too concerned,” said Wiggins, who was joined on episode three by Matt Stephens. “He's an old hat at this now really.
He is still the greatest Tour rider of our generation and continues to be. He is my favourite for the Tour de France this year. He is the old master at this now. He knows how to prepare to win a Grand Tour.
"I think although we are all looking and talking and there is a lot of speculation about how his form is and where he is at, I think in his mind and his confidence, his stature within that team, the likes of Bernal will look up to Chris.
“They will take their opportunity now and in some ways they will have to pinch themselves, 'this is Chris Froome, the Tour de France winner, riding for me'. He [Bernal] has just won Paris-Nice and they will make the most of it while they can, because they know once he comes into form, Chris is going to be up there gunning for the Tour de France.”
Wiggins was unconcerned about Froome’s difficult start to the year, with the Team Sky rider reportedly now considering a tilt at the Tour of the Alps at the end of April in an attempt to ride into some form.
“He's had years where he has won everything or he has finished second in Tirreno and he has won Romandie, or he has won Dauphine,” Wiggins said. “He's had up and down years, he's had years where he has done nothing and finished fourth in Dauphine and then gone on to have his best Tour.
“He has had every type of run in to the Tour and this will just be a rung on the ladder. He will be happy that he finished the week pretty much, barring a couple of laps of the final stage, and they will go off now and start their altitude training camps and things like that, and this is still very early in the season. I don't think this will really concern him at this stage.
“Even when I was there, he'd hit someone out training in Monaco walking across the road. You think where he was this time last year in preparation for the Giro with the whole salbutamol thing hanging over his head, and the question marks - is he in form? isn't he? - and he just came [through] literally on the last mountain stage on the Giro.”
Wiggins was also full of praise of the elite mentality which has powered Froome to his four Tour titles as well as the Giro in 2018 and the Vuelta in 2017.
“He doesn't give a s*** to be honest. his mental resilience is amazing. Most athletes at this level, I've said it a few times... but you have got to be a bit of a c***. Athletes at that level, I'm not talking about winning one Grand Tour, but when you have won six, a bit like a Steve Redgrave, people that just win year after year, you have got to have something about you.
“And that doesn't mean you going around kicking pigeons up the a*** in the street. He has got a wife and two kids don't forget, and he is able to focus on what he does with their support as well, and just be self-centred, selfish and just get the job done and he does that year after year.”
Listen to the full episode for more from Wiggins and Matt Stephens on:
- Whether Froome or Geraint Thomas will lead Ineos at the Tour
- Why fat-shaming comments from Patrick Lefevere about Remco Evenepoel were ‘out of order’
- The physical and mental well-being of riders in the modern peloton
- Impressive performances from Brits Adam Yates and James Knox
- A look back at Gent-Wevelgem and the Tour of Catalunya
- And memories of riding together for the ill-fated Linda McCartney team
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