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Le Tour de France.


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He would be in second with an even bigger cushion over Nibali. ;)

Haha, touche. :D

Would have been nice to see Froome take the stage win though, but in terms of GC I guess he knew what he was signing up for when he re-signed with Sky after the Vuelta last year despite having offers from Saxo Bank, Lampre and Garmin, but obviously Sky made him the best offer.

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Haha, touche. :D

Would have been nice to see Froome take the stage win though, but in terms of GC I guess he knew what he was signing up for when he re-signed with Sky after the Vuelta last year despite having offers from Saxo Bank, Lampre and Garmin, but obviously Sky made him the best offer.

I think the plan was for Wiggins to get the stage win.......as long as they stayed together. As you say, Froome signed up for the job. He has plenty of years ahead of him.

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alright guys,,

dont really know the ins and outs of the tactics involved etc

how do the other members of the team (Froome, Cavendish etc) help Wiggins during the race?

is it no just a case of every man for himself racing?

forgive my ignorance

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alright guys,,

dont really know the ins and outs of the tactics involved etc

how do the other members of the team (Froome, Cavendish etc) help Wiggins during the race?

is it no just a case of every man for himself racing?

forgive my ignorance

Wiggins has 3 or 4 teammates around him at all times. Their job is to protect him from potential falls, especially on the flat sections. But their most important job is to keep him in their slipstream, which allows him to conserve a lot of energy. That's why you get Rogers, Porte and Froome in front of Wiggins, when the climbing begins with the rider in front taking the brunt of the wind. Helpers also get water bottles, energy gels and food for him and others from the team car, so he doesn't have to go back. If there's a puncture and no team car in sight, they may also give him their tyre. And if a team leader is dropped or has suffered a puncture or a fall, then his teammates drop back to ride in front of him to help him get back into the main group with a minimum energy loss.

It's definitely not every man for himself, hierarchy matters in cycling. Of course there are guys, who are out there racing just for themselves, that's mainly from weaker teams, whose main goal is to get guys in the breakaway or go for stage wins in order to get maximum exposure for their sponsors.

General classement contenders have their entire teams working for them, a couple of guys to help on the climbs, a couple to work on the flat etc.

Sprinters have their teams do most of the riding in front on flat stages, setting up a so called train, where the idea is for the team to pull their main sprinter to the front, where they peel off one by one, while he stays in their slipstream for a final attack and sprint in the last couple hundred meters.

If you take a look at today's and yesterday's stage, during the final climbs Nibali, main Sky rival, had Ivan Basso dictating a strong pace at the front, which lead to a lot of the riders being dropped, he was preparing the ground for a Nibali attack, which never came as yesterday the Sky boys had him covered and today he didn't have the legs for it and ended up being punished, when Froome and Wiggins pulled away.

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