Bradley Wiggins Read Online Free PDF Page A

World Champion. Greipel has his wish, a head-to-head battle to prove who is the fastest man in this race, a chance for one or other to prove his credentials as
cycling’s Usain Bolt.
    Only the first part of Greipel’s dream comes true. Cavendish’s front wheel breaks the finish line a fraction of a second before his, and sprinting is not a game for celebrating
second place.
    Bradley Wiggins, Fabian Cancellara and all the main rivals are home safely, so Brad still sits quietly in second place, seven seconds separating him from the Swiss leader. All is going to
plan.
    Mark Cavendish has won 21 stages of the greatest race on Earth, and win number 21 came without the assistance of his team. Does this prove that there is harmony within the Team Sky household as
they try to win on two fronts? We probably won’t know the answer to that until one of their twin objectives becomes thwarted. What if there is a sprint stage and Cavendish gets beaten? What
if Wiggins gets caught out because his teammates are concentrating on earning Cavendish a stage win? At present, the latter scenario looks highly unlikely, as the overall objective remains crystal
clear. What is more probable is that there will be a chance to see if the Manx rider can keep his famously fiery disposition in check if things don’t go his way.
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    Wiggins and Cavendish go back – a long way back. They have roomed together for years on national duty at Olympics and World Championships, and nearly ended up as
professional teammates at T-Mobile back when the latter was first scaring the established order of sprinters and the former was being groomed as a
rouleur
to add horsepower on the flat and
lead out the fast men. It is perhaps surprising then, that it wasn’t until Brad was in his thirties that they actually joined each other on a professional team, and by then one of them was
champion of the world and the other one was a genuine Tour de France contender. Their separate goals don’t seem to have separated them. Based on huge mutual appreciation for their differing
strengths, their comradeship is natural and without hierarchy. Wiggins famously does impressions of his brasher teammate to entertain the others, while Cavendish pretends to ridicule
Wiggins’s guitar skills. The trick for the Team Sky backroom is to ensure that this goodwill continues. The management would surely be the first department to feel any anger from either party
if things don’t work out: they like each other too much to blame each other for a falling out.

    THE BARCELONA OLYMPICS UNDERSTANDABLY didn’t grip the country in quite the same way that London 2012 held our attention, but they were a major
occasion nonetheless. For the best part of a week, we gasped at the opulence of the opening ceremony, sighed at the dramatic backdrop of the beautiful city behind the high dive board and listened
to Freddie Mercury and Dame Montserrat Caballé blasting out the theme tune.
    But we craved a gold medal.
    The athletics hadn’t started yet, so we were still waiting for Linford Christie and Sally Gunnell to take the stage. The so-called ‘minor sports’ had held sway for the opening
few days and the country developed a passionate interest in sailing, archery and rowing. It was very exciting, but what we needed was a hero. We found him in an unlikely shape.
    Chris Boardman was known as The Professor. The studious approach he had developed alongside his coach and mentor, Peter Keen, became synonymous with his name throughout his cycling career, but
the first time he entered the general public consciousness was here in Barcelona. Their Teutonic application to the 4,000 metre individual pursuit had left no stone unturned in the hunt for
perfection and victory, least of all the bike he would ride.
    A slightly more British character was Mike Burrows, the archetypal mad inventor. Despite looking more like a member of Pink Floyd than Dr Snuggles, Burrows had turned his formidable mind to