Yep, here's the excerpt in CN. You have to wonder if the timing of this could have been better.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/froome-reveals-how-close-he-was-to-leaving-team-sky-in-2011
It's also made up my mind for me. I don't like Froome.
Sky TdF team...
- Thread starter rich p
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http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/froome-reveals-how-close-he-was-to-leaving-team-sky-in-2011
It's also made up my mind for me. I don't like Froome.
davdandy
Senior Member
- Location
- Lowton/Leigh
How about Swift?
No chance. He doesn't dine at the top table of sprinters especially after riding the giro.
It's all about froome so it will all be domestiques
Ditto. Very bad timing unless Froome is trying to provide a reason to get Wiggins to drop out of the team selection.
roadrash
cycle chatterer
- Location
- sitting on the edge of wigan pier
thom
____
- Location
- The Borough
The timing is bad but
1) the best time to bring out a book is right now in the run up to the TdF - there is little real option on that count. I bet when it was scheduled months ago, it was pre-Wiggins' revival and pre Wiggins' re-found motivation. Nobody would have predicted it after last year.
2) Froome's honesty is likely something you won't get from the other riders - don't judge him for being prepared to give a clearer understanding of himself, one that perhaps the more media managed like Brad & Cav won't do in the various cheap biographies they seem to repeatedly churn out. No doubt they have their stories of selfishness - think of Brad going awol on the Champs-Elysee when with Garmin.
To me, given Froome's impeccable manners and circumspect professionalism when performing his media obligations, he's clearly calculated that he's ready to tell his side of this story. I also very much doubt that SKY and Brailsford won't have ok'ed the content. Remember, they're all big boys doing a job and that Brailsford really doesn't feel it necessary or indeed desirable for his athletes to be best mates or uncompetitive with each other. Although we like some notion, some image that the British riders are deeply committed to supporting each other, I very much doubt Brailsford encourages that. Cav had to leave SKY to get the support he needed.
3) Froome is a better GC rider than Wiggins. With hindsight it is clear he might have won the Vuelta in 2011 and then gone on to win the Tour in 2012. I'm not saying SKY made the wrong decisions for the team at the time, I'm just saying it must have been very frustrating for his talent to have been stiffled so much for the purposes of the SKY media machine delivering their preferred hero the yellow jersey.
1) the best time to bring out a book is right now in the run up to the TdF - there is little real option on that count. I bet when it was scheduled months ago, it was pre-Wiggins' revival and pre Wiggins' re-found motivation. Nobody would have predicted it after last year.
2) Froome's honesty is likely something you won't get from the other riders - don't judge him for being prepared to give a clearer understanding of himself, one that perhaps the more media managed like Brad & Cav won't do in the various cheap biographies they seem to repeatedly churn out. No doubt they have their stories of selfishness - think of Brad going awol on the Champs-Elysee when with Garmin.
To me, given Froome's impeccable manners and circumspect professionalism when performing his media obligations, he's clearly calculated that he's ready to tell his side of this story. I also very much doubt that SKY and Brailsford won't have ok'ed the content. Remember, they're all big boys doing a job and that Brailsford really doesn't feel it necessary or indeed desirable for his athletes to be best mates or uncompetitive with each other. Although we like some notion, some image that the British riders are deeply committed to supporting each other, I very much doubt Brailsford encourages that. Cav had to leave SKY to get the support he needed.
3) Froome is a better GC rider than Wiggins. With hindsight it is clear he might have won the Vuelta in 2011 and then gone on to win the Tour in 2012. I'm not saying SKY made the wrong decisions for the team at the time, I'm just saying it must have been very frustrating for his talent to have been stiffled so much for the purposes of the SKY media machine delivering their preferred hero the yellow jersey.
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I can see what you're saying, and agree to a degree, but if you're wanting your best wingman to bust a gut for you on that mountain, next month, then it's either spectacularly bad timing or you really don't want him on the team IMO.
I think I know which one I'd choose.
400bhp
Guru
Well put.
The big boy comment is interesting. I'd wager he'd already had that conversation with Wiggo anyway.
StuAff
Silencing his legs regularly
- Location
- Portsmouth
+1. Froome's whining about 2012 is uncalled for, and the quotes in the Sunday Times came across as 'me me me'. Thom's right that Froome's the better GC contender. Now. Last year, he would have would have been even if Brad had been on the team. But if he (and the missus) are seriously arguing that Brailsford should have taken a punt on him and let him race Wiggo in 2012, he needs his head examining. Wiggo had his best ever shot at a win in 2012, he deserved it and he got it. I mean, I'm sure Froome would be perfectly OK with Wiggo being joint team leader for this year, wouldn't he.....
If Froome wants to know what dealing with a duplicitous team mate is really like, there are plenty more convincing examples...can't imagine Hinault playing nice with him
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Louch
105% knowledge on 105
- Location
- Kingdom of Kinnard
If froome as a better team player than wiggins, his 2nd place money would have been pooled in with wigggins team money. He didn't get second without the same support the rest of the team gave him and wiggins.
agreed wiggo won every race he entered that year if memory serves, froome was in most/all. Wiggo was the logical choice.
Pedrosanchezo
Veteran
- Location
- Perthshire, scotland
Timing is unbelievable! If Wiggo is not in this years TDF it will be a crying shame!!
2012 - Wiggins was the leader and the strongest, Froome said as much back then. He was no match for Wiggins in the TT.
2013 - Froome was the form rider and no one disputes this
2014 - Froome is the leader and Wiggins the super dom and fall back.
Brailsford must be wondering if it is legal to put a muzzle on grown men! They both act like bloody children the way they bitch about each other in books! Have a chat. Have an argument! Get it off your chest before you reveal your REAL feelings for your next best seller pre Tour.
As for Froome - i try to like the guy, and sometimes do, but reading that reminds me how much of a weasel he is........
2012 - Wiggins was the leader and the strongest, Froome said as much back then. He was no match for Wiggins in the TT.
2013 - Froome was the form rider and no one disputes this
2014 - Froome is the leader and Wiggins the super dom and fall back.
Brailsford must be wondering if it is legal to put a muzzle on grown men! They both act like bloody children the way they bitch about each other in books! Have a chat. Have an argument! Get it off your chest before you reveal your REAL feelings for your next best seller pre Tour.
As for Froome - i try to like the guy, and sometimes do, but reading that reminds me how much of a weasel he is........
400bhp
Guru
What makes you think they haven't already discussed it?
People do talk you know.
Pedrosanchezo
Veteran
- Location
- Perthshire, scotland
“He sounded like a man who had just dropped his oxygen tank near the top of Everest,” said Froome. “Brad was folding physically and mentally, and quicker than I had thought possible. I got the feeling that he would literally just get off his bike were I to carry on pushing. What was a simple and perfect plan to me seemed to translate for Brad into a public humiliation.”
Seems quite personal to me. Not the sort of thing you talk about. I could be wrong. Opinions are like that.......
thom
____
- Location
- The Borough
I think in his mind he thought Wiggo's GC day was done after last year's shambles. Surely he'd prefer not to have Wiggo there at all.
He may not have much of a choice unless Porte and a couple of other's form does manage to come good though, so for sure, the timing is rather unfortunate.
