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Wiggins says Sky may have two leaders at 2013 Tour de France

2012 Tour winner tells BBC he intends to win in 2013 too, but has he told Brailsford and Froome?

2012 Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins has told the BBC he intends to win the 2013 edition of the race and has suggested that Team Sky might have two team leaders in France - him and Chris Froome.

In comments that are unlikely to be music to the ears of either Froome or Sky team principal, Dave Brailsford, Wiggins told BBC Radio 5Live that:

"We are resetting the goals, trying to win a second Tour de France, but you cannot replicate those circumstances. I accept that and am quite happy with that as you cannot have too many moments like that in your career.

"As it stands, I'm probably going to try and win a second Tour de France, so I don't know, maybe we'll have two leaders."

Brailsford has gone on record as saying that Froome will be Sky's designated leader for the race - the more mountainous course is widely thought to suit the younger man more than Wiggins whose time trialling prowess was ideally suited to the format of the 2012 race.

Wiggins comments to 5Live left little room for doubt regarding his intentions for the 2013 Tour.

"My goal is to win the Tour next year, whether that is realised or not, I don't know really," Wiggins told the station.

"How that's going to work with the team I don't know, it's more Dave's problem, really, to worry about.

"It's just how we service both mouths - that's more the problem to figure out."

While Wiggins remarks were probably tailored to his audience, it will be interesting to see how they go down with Chris Froome in particular. From the outside the Wiggins/Froome dynamic would appear to be a rather brittle combination of mutual wariness mixed with respect. At least in public both men have kept a lid on comments that might suggest any mutual distrust - however the mood music from their respective camps suggests that relations are probably fragile.

That won't be helped by what seems to be a volte face by Wiggins over next year's Tour - at the launch for next year's race in October he suggested that he would likely ride in a supporting role for Froome at the race, as Froome did for him at this year's edition.

Last month Wiggins was reported to be targeting the Giro - the parcours for next year's race would appear to be more suited to him than the Tour; and according to Team Sky and British Cycling head coach Shane Sutton Wiggins believed that following up his Tour win by winning the Giro would make him a cycling legend.

Wiggins also told the 5Live audience that winning the time trial Olympic Gold at Hampton Court "will never be topped, it was the height of my career and it will never be bettered."

road.cc's founder and first editor, nowadays to be found riding a spreadsheet. Tony's journey in cycling media started in 1997 as production editor and then deputy editor of Total Bike, acting editor of Total Mountain Bike and then seven years as editor of Cycling Plus. He launched his first cycling website - the Cycling Plus Forum at the turn of the century. In 2006 he left C+ to head up the launch team for Bike Radar which he edited until 2008, when he co-launched the multi-award winning road.cc - finally handing on the reins in 2021 to Jack Sexty. His favourite ride is his ‘commute’ - which he does most days inc weekends and he’s been cycle-commuting since 1994. His favourite bikes are titanium and have disc brakes, though he'd like to own a carbon bike one day.

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G-bitch | 11 years ago
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I wonder if he actually meant in future some time, rather than in the coming year. Can't imagine that he'd upset the apple cart when the seasons goals and plans have been set and would have started rolling back at the beginning of November. If he did mean next year then... oh dear!

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