Wiggins was interviewed by, unsurprisingly, Sky and was asked if he knew he was behind at the timing point. He did, not only because he was fed the information but also because of the 'huge' sign. But it was all about riding to his own schedule. He didn't say if he'd had to up his pace to match Westra’s unexpectedly good performance, but there was only the one intermediate timing point, and I doubt, however good Sky’s preparation and implementation was, that they could be confident, to the second or even handful of seconds, where he was in relation to Westra’s time.
Having said that, the performance of the team was just about faultless. There was
- Wiggins’ stunning prologue result (considering the conditions and necessary caution)
- the attention which enabled Wiggins and Thomas to be in the front echelon on the decisive first stage, and also for them to help drive it home allowing the rest of the team to take it easy while others were busting a gut
- Richie Porte and co keeping the pace high on the final climbs to dissuade the more explosive climbers from attacking effectively.
- Wiggins ‘delivering’.
With Cav, Wiggins, Boassen-Hagen and Richie Porte all winning it’s been a stellar start to the season. Not that it really matters but I see that Sky are now top of the team rankings after Paris-Nice.
Great for Bradley, but I still suspect the changes in speed on the TdF stages will be his undoing. He has a great engine but doesn't seem to be able to respond when those nearby up the pace a bit, even if for only a short time. Fingers crossed though as I would really like to see him win this year.
The counter-argument to this was his performance in the Dauphine last year, when on the harder climbs he was dropped. But he gradually upped his pace, Indurain-style, and managed to catch up the hares.
Innr ring's views on trhe suject here:
http://inrng.com/2012/03/can-bradley-wiggins-win-the-tour-de-france-2/