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18 • Touchline • Issue 14
Bradley wiggins
The greatest British athlete of all time?
n 2007, the performance
director of British Cycling,
Dave Brailsford, made
what was at the time
considered to be an outlandish
and
wholly
unbelievable
statement at a press conference
to gathered journalists and media.
He stated that he would put
together a cycling team capable
of delivering a British Tour de
France winner within 5 years. Very
few people took this statement
seriously, given the history British
riders had of delivering success
in this gruelling, 3 week cycle
race, covering over 3,500km and
riding across some of the most
feared climbs in the Alps and the Pyrenees. It is widely regarded
as sport’s hardest and most physical endurance event. Most
people ignored him, some sniggered and a few joked at the
audacity of such a statement, Brailsford however went to work
on delivering on his promise and working on a plan to deliver
it, paying particular attention to what he calls the aggregation
of marginal gains.
It is difficult to express in words just how difficult it is and just
what an achievement it is for any cyclist to even make the start
line of the Tour de France. Ashley Brown of Team Sportscover
is often asked by people who do not understand these things
whether he is riding the Tour de France! His reply is as always
considered and respectful to the questioner but this naivety of
I
BY PAUL RICH
Wiggins on his way to winning gold in the time trial at the 2012 Summer Olympics
© William Morice
understanding as to the rigours of this, the most elite of cycling
events is commonplace. We have become used to watching these
super human athletes on the TV covering these great distances
at speeds us mere mortals would have trouble sustaining for
a kilometre, let alone 3,500 of them! Every rider will endure
extreme physical pain and suffering, day in, day out and call
upon reserves of super human levels of physical fitness, built
up over the many thousands of kilometres put in on the road
training beforehand and in the tough schedule of the so called
‘classics’ and other stage events held earlier in the year. All of
this leads up to the start of this monumental race in early July
where everything beforehand is stored in the legs of the racers,
hoping for success over the next 3 weeks of hard racing as they
head towards Paris and the finish on the Champs Elysses. It is