A few interesting things have happened in the last few days. Australia continued their dominance of men's track cycling at the Commonwealth games. Bradley Wiggins came out and said some more explosive things in interviews and Vincenzo Nibali has, barring a crash, won the Tour de France by a large margin.
Firstly the track cycling seems to have dropped a bit since the London Olympics. Now maybe that is not giving the Australian's credit for coming back really strongly or maybe it is looking at things too simplistically? What I do know is that having gotten used to an era of British dominance in track cycling it feels odd that we seem to no longer be bossing the velodrome any more.
Which brings me to Wiggins. I won't go into details on what he has said or try to interpret them as some others have done - those articles have been better written by people who know more than I do. However one thing that has struck me is it all feels a little bit harsh on Team Sky. Sounds strange I know but it just feels a bit like now he is not team leader at sky he no longer wishes to play. To that end he has reverted back to the track where he can be to dog. Maybe he always wanted to do this, but if he was still the main GC contender at SKY would he? I don't believe so. Which is a shame because I thought he was more understanding of cycling than that. Also this removal from the road must mean other teams weren't interested in him as maybe he thought they would be? And there I go with supposition, sorry can't help it. There will probably be another statement in the week starting something else anyway.
While SKY have struggled at the tour with both Froome and Porte having issues one man has been in a race of his own. Vincenzo Nibali store a match on everyone in Sheffield and has not looked back. Now it is fair to say in this tour of crashes that the big hitters in the GC haven't been there pushing and challenging him in the way you would have expected however I am worried. Now for legal reasons let me say I am not claiming dodgey is going on. However he has won by a 7 minute plus margin which is unheard of outside of the Armstrong era. Also Nibali has shown total dominance on the flat and the mountains. Admittedly his team have been really impressive as SKY's have been in previous years. Its the commentators that worry me. The phrases and way of talking about him when he makes and attack sound just like sound bites from old tours with a certain Texan. I really, really hope this was just a dominant performance from a man in top shape and on top form. I really do. However I just have a niggling feeling that he is too strong too often. His poker face never looks in trouble which was something people used against Armstrong 'he's on the juice because he doesnt look like he's hurting'. This as well is before we consider the chequered history of some of his team!
Like I said it is just a doubt and I hope that he is totally clean and just racing an awesome Tour. However today's time trial will be instructive. If he competes well with the pure TT riders then I for one will stop celebrating his win. After all once bitten and all that.
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