Wednesday 9 July 2014

Froome and Team Sky's plan B

Having been rather scornful of the value of a plan B Team Sky, like Omega Pharma Quickstep are faced with coming up with one inside the first week. Both Teams left out supposedly superfluous heavy hitters. How much would Omega have loved to have Boonan on the start line today now that Cav is gone? But Sky's omission of Wiggins will capture the headlines, in Britain at least, now that Froome has gone. On the steps of the Team bus  Brailsford looked less than convinced talking up Porte as a realistic substitute team leader. With a following wind he is a fine rider but its hard to imagine that tonight Nibali and Contador are not quietly relieved.

However, given his clear form just how bad must Wiggins be as a team mate that it was safest to leave him out, especially given that he does have recent form on the cobbles. Its debate, that some if not all, will come out diminished. Either Brailsford has made a huge error of judgment, or there was something so toxic in Froome, Wiggins or both that made having them together impossible. 

Here is my guess. Froome is a self made man who resented playing second fiddle to Wiggo, who I suspect he does not really respect. Wiggo, a product of BC, happiest with the individual effort of the TT and pursuit, a man who appears emotionally vulnerable, needs a lot of support around him. My guess is that he has also cheesed off some of the more senior members of the squad, such as Thomas.  However he is more charismatic and popular with the public. Brailsford would have convinced himself that a team needs to be more than the sum of its parts, that a whole sans Wiggo was a better bet. He was wrong. Froome has been vulnerable to crashes in the Tour run in and has had his own health problems. With a stage on the Roubaix cobbles so early it was a huge gamble he did not have to make. Sky have made wrong moves before, but this is far more profound. It brings into question their fundamental strategy and people management. 

What it does mean is that the riders that remain should be liberated to do some harm on individual stages. The team slogging away to put Porte on the podium (a long shot) feels a drab choice, riding in the wheels of Bert and Nibbles. 

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