'Mark Cavendish relieved and humble about Tour de France omission' - Bradley Wiggins

Wiggins' comments come after a dramatic week in which the Ineos Grenadiers decided to leave Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas out of their team for the Tour.

Cavendish was another to miss out, as he did not make the Bahrain–McLaren line up, but Wiggins said he thinks his friend and former riding partner will have actually been relieved about it.

"I spoke to him and he told me a few days ago," Wiggins said on the podcast. "He was part of that decision. It is not the case that he has not been selected for the Tour, he voiced that the Tour was probably going to be too hard for him this year.

"There are only two sprint stages, and he also recognised - which shows the class and dignity of Mark - that rather than selfishly putting himself in the mix, they should put more numbers around Mikel Landa.

"That just shows the mark of him as an athlete and as a person, and he was quite relieved as well that the decision has been made and once it got announced it was not a disappointment for him.

"Last year he was not part of the decision, the team took that for him, whereas this time he was very much in control and was part of that decision.

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As for Froome and Thomas, Wiggins said the right decision was probably made by Dave Brailsford and it could work out for both British riders in the end.

"People are assuming they are not happy, but as athletes and previous winners they don't want to go to the Tour if they are not in the shape they have been in previous years," Wiggins added.

"G is at the standard where he should be targeting Grand Tours and if he had the form he would be in that Tour team because you don't leave Geraint Thomas out of a Tour team lightly, that's a big decision to make. And Geraint would have been part of that decision. He's one of the best team-mates I've ever had.

"Froome is on a forward trajectory, and he has got a chance to win the Vuelta - I wouldn't put it past him and he will certainly be up there. This is going to assist him.

"I can imagine that by the time we get to the Tour de France next year, all being well, we could say that Chris Froome will be back as a leader going for number five."