Sean Yates: Bradley Wiggins nearly quit 2012 Tour de France after Chris Froome 'attack'

Sky is like High School. Who is he kidding with these idiot comments.

Yea Gods all this fuss, the man sent a tweet when he was pissed off. How many of us have written an e-mail then re read it and found we had declared war on the USA (ok OTT but you get my meaning) when we meant to say I didn't like that,
Get a life folks it was only a tweet

“I think it would be better for everyone if I went home.”

Strange, isn't it, how twelve words can mean so many different things?

Maybe Brad was just fed up, as if – like a child on an unwanted day-trip – he was saying: "I don't like it here. I think I'll go home".

Maybe he was thinking about the good of the team. A sort of: "I'm getting in the way here. I'd better shove off."

Whatever he meant, as others have said, history will always record that he was the first Brit to win the Tour – which he might not have done if he hadn't had Yates yelling in his year.

Prams and toys, boys. Prams and toys.

They'll say any old rubbish to sell a book!!! hes gone down in my estimations!!

“In general, this year especially, the guys running the team don’t know enough about bike-riding and a lot of the riders went into the Tour overtired. They are made to race too much, too long, too hard.”

Hmm, Mr Yates, I take it you didn't include Vasili in that lot after todays performance.

"There is no one at Sky who knows much about bike riding." Bike racing must be exceedingly simple then, if Sky win the TdF two years on the trot, finish 2012 top-ranked team by a stretch and sit atop the 2013 rankings.

"I still believe he [Armstrong] is a phenomenal athlete and still the biggest engine ever to get on a bike, apart from maybe Chris Froome." Not Merckx? Or Anquetil? Or Coppi? Maybe he's never heard of them...

Sean's clearly strong in the legs but weak in the head.

If he spat his dummy out over that then he has gone right down in my estimation, however i think the truth might be slightly different from whats been claimed.

I can believe that Wiggins would threaten to leave the TdF after the Froome attack, but I can't believe that he would have ever carried out that threat. He'd have been throwing away his only chance to win it.

I'm very surprised that he said Brailsford had a dislike of confrontation - for a seriously, almost hyper-competitive man, I find it hard to believe that he wouldn't come down like a ton of bricks on anyone threatening that.

But I guess Sean Yates knows better than me ...

“To be brutally honest, there is no one at Sky who knows much about bike riding.

“In general, this year especially, the guys running the team don’t know enough about bike-riding and a lot of the riders went into the Tour overtired. They are made to race too much, too long, too hard.”

Which, IMHO, translates to:
"Doping was so rife in the past that if you want an entirely clean support staff, you're going to struggle to find anyone who has raced at the top flight in the last 20 years. Sure they're out there, but how many and at what cost?"

Wiggins has decided to give up road racing? Um, what?

It sounds rather childish and maybe for the best that Wiggins has decided to give up road racing. I get that he felt betrayed, but really. Toys back in pram, you're a big boy now

Who cares, the history books still say Wiggins was 2012 Tour de France winner!!

One rather ambiguous text message does not imply that a man, who had sacrificed so much to win one race, would jack it in and sulk off back to Chorley.

Only real light this sheds is the fragility of team Sky.

I can see many leaving Sky next year if there is a team to go to. They still lead in efficiency but as Sean rightly states, tactics and knowledge of the sport are maybe not as high a quality as the riders within.

If they could tempt Charly Wegelius....theat would be a big step forward.

Yawn, boring story to sell a book with.

Does Sean's auto-bio include any juicy details of his time as room mate with Lance Armstrong on the Motorola team? That would be worth a read.

Yates is a no-nonsense stand up bloke. The hardman's hardman. Grew up idolising him. Yep, he's got a book to sell, but that's also when this stuff would come out anyway. Its hardly "Froome is called Sandra at weekends and has a hangbag addiction" salaciousnessness.

It all feels authentic. Plus he has massive veins in his legs. Which I am in love with.

Buying.

Pot shots from the cheap seats.

Sounds a little bit like sour grapes. Although his account does sound convincing given how precious Wiggins can be. I say that, but I can understand why he felt upset, his big stage and he is being upstaged by his understudy. But it is all history now.

He has a coaching business I think if you want his technical advice.

I quite like Yates for his no nonsense words. However I think he'd be more successful if he wrote a cycling manual rather than an autobiography. It'd be very interesting to get an inside view into the Sky machine and modern day pro racing. If anyone knows of such a book, let me know!