Van Baarle, who rides for the Garmin-Sharp team, had a second advantage going into the first of two final-day stages. Wiggins won in 9min He is now 22sec behind Van Baarle. Kwiatkowski finished in 10min 6. But Vaughters, who was now thinking about running his own team, viewed Wiggins' surprise win that day differently.
He saw the embodiment of Ferrari's belief that if you can find a young cyclist who can generate watts of power for five minutes, which is basically what Wiggins had done to win his Olympic pursuit title, they might be able to sustain that for 50 minutes as a mature cyclist. And if you can stamp out watts for that long, you might be able to win a Tour de France, on the right course.
So when Wiggins finally tired of alternating between the very professional accumulation of track medals for Great Britain and the slightly amateurish attempts to convince French pro teams he could win road races too, Vaughters signed him for Garmin-Slipstream. That was September Ten months later, a slimmed-down Wiggins was riding shoulder to shoulder with Alberto Contador, the Schleck brothers and Ferrari's most famous pupil, Lance Armstrong, on the final climbs of the toughest stages at the Tour.
Wiggins would eventually finish fourth, external-link matching Robert Millar's best ever finish by a British rider and it was later upgraded to third , only to actually go and win the thing when Armstrong was slung out of the sport in He and Vaughters had parted company by then, somewhat acrimoniously, but the transfer fee the American extracted from Team Sky for Wiggins' repatriation in was still subsidising Garmin's racing programme, so the relationship was not completely over.
The point of this story is not just to titillate the Twittersphere with "a Ferrari fuelled Wiggo" anecdote, or to highlight Vaughters' eye for a bargain, it is to point out that Wiggins leaves road cycling with a haul of titles that could be even more impressive if only he had realised just how good he was or somebody else realised just how good he was a few years earlier. He was 29 when he made that Tour breakthrough - and there were other good results in , too - but he struggled in his first year in Team Sky colours, in , seemingly weighed down by the expectations that came with his new "contender" status and leadership role.
Which is why is arguably more significant than the near-perfect in his transition from popular Olympian to British cycling's first superstar. A first half to the season seemed to set him up for a real tilt at a very open Tour, only to break a collarbone in a crash.
It would have been easy for him to think 'this race is cursed and nobody knocks me off on the track'. But he came back, two months later, to finish third at the Vuelta and second in the time trial at the World Championships to Germany's Tony Martin.
He would also help tow Mark Cavendish to victory in the road race, a performance that foreshadowed what was to come for British cycling. What followed has been relayed and replayed many times before, but it is worth pointing out he remains the only rider in history to win the pre-Tour hat-trick of Paris-Nice, Tour of Romandie and Criterium du Dauphine and the Tour in the same season, before capping that by becoming the only man to win the Tour and Olympic gold in the same year.
But having pointed that out, you have to make the counterpoint that his team-mate Chris Froome could have won the Vuelta in if the team had been riding for him from the start, not Wiggins, a mistake the younger man appeared to want to flag up during two notorious stages at the Tour. Wiggins has since said he did not enjoy winning the Tour at all - he hated the pressure, the media intrusion and the dynamics of his relationship with Froome - and he did not need to confirm that he did not enjoy much either, it was obvious.
Even winning the Tour of Britain and another silver medal at the Worlds failed to raise much of a smile. Hope it'll inspire the governments to make cycling safer in our cities.
It's a fantastic way to travel and keep fit!! Comment posted by U, at 22 Jul U I would also like to congratulate all the people that come on to this site to pick holes in praise, and attempt to ruin other peoples happiness, and belittle what is truly one of the greatest achievements I ever witnessed, we don't need educating on who and how and if and why and but please take a day off and just be happy, if you can't they go and troll about the price of milk.
Comment posted by heleninsomerset, at 22 Jul heleninsomerset. Magnificent, awe inspiring, brilliant, admirable - and what a fabulous lead in to the Olympics Just hope they all get a bit of a break first!
Comment posted by kwisatz haderach, at 22 Jul kwisatz haderach. Well done. Comment posted by charlysez, at 22 Jul charlysez. Forget overhyped football 'stars'. Forget overhyped nearly wimbledon champions. Wiggo is a real British sportsman of the highest calibre. And didn't you just love his victory speech I'm glad I got the chance to witness it. Roll on the Olympics. Comment posted by leforgais, at 22 Jul leforgais. The achievement is immense. Wiggins deserves a knighthood but so does dave Brailsford, the inspiration behind the success of both Team Sky and British Cycling - both of which are world beating organisations.
I work with a bunch of Americans who have not only been turned on to the TdF, but who have also been stunned by the truly stupendous performances of messrs Wiggins and Froome and by the stunning accelration of 'the missile' at the end of races.
I am in awe of the performance of the big 3 and the pure selflessness of the teams that have supported them. Aweosme day! This 75 year old was leaping up and down screaming! Bravo Cav and Froome. What a victory. He must be an honorary Frenchman. This morning all the French people I was talking to had big smiles on their faces. One of the greates Bristish sportsmen ever!
Clearly the detractors here have IQs smaller than their shoe sizes. The Tour de France is an exceptional challenge. Team Sky have gone from nowhere to winning the most gruelling race of its kind in just 3 years - if you can't figure out how significant an achievement that is then you probably shouldnt be allowed out without supervision.
Well done to them - they've set the bar for the Olympics.
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