Wiggins tips Contador to win Tour de France
- Thursday, 9 July 2009
- 2 Comments
Alberto Contador, Lance Armstorng, Tour de France 2009, stage 6
Bradley Wiggins believes Alberto Contador will win the 2009 Tour de France, even if he does not go on the attack on the climb to Andorra Arcalis on Friday.
Wiggins doesn't believe all the rumours that the gloves are about to come off in the fight between Astana team-mates Lance Armstrong and Contador.
"We’ve heard the rumours but we don’t really know what's going on,” he told Cycling Weekly.
"Are Peter and Jordan really separated? We only know what people tell us. Is the big brother house real? I don’t know to be honest.”
Wiggins is wary of writing off Armstrong but seems to be cheering for Contador.
"He’s going to win the Tour de France. If he wins it tomorrow or on the Ventoux, it doesn’t really matter. He’s got two-and-a-half weeks before he has to win it," Wiggins said.
"That’s just me saying it as a fan of Contador. What do I know? But logic tells me he’s going to just keep it cool [on Friday].”
Wiggins sees this year’s Tour de France as a two-way battle between Armstrong and Contador. Everyone else has already lost too much time to have a realistic chance of victory.
“It’s a two-horse race. They’re in the same team and so that’s where the difficulty comes, and we’ll see how that fans out. But Alberto’s still the favourite and I think Lance would say that as well. At least until Lance shows himself and sees what he is capable of in the next few stages." Perhaps only Wiggins' team mate Christian Vande Velde is in a position to take advantage of their rivalry if he comes good in the final part of the Tour.
“Maybe, but he’s going to wait. He’s not going to attack in the Pyrenees,” Wiggins said.
“He’ll be getting better as the race goes on and hopefully going really good in the third week. The race is pretty much finished for everyone else, for Denis Menchov and for Cadel Evans."
WIGGINS STILL TARGETTING TOP 20
Wiggins is targeting a top 20 overall or even better. The first mountain finish in this year’s Tour de France will also be a big test for his ambitions.
"I’m going to try and stay with Contador’s group when they launch," he said.
"Nobody really knows where it will happen, or if Astana will get a train going on the climb up to Andorra. It’s been such an unpredictable, nervous and stressful race up to now. I’m sure that Astana will take it on, but we don’t really know.”
We will find out on Friday afternoon.
We will be covering Friday's stage seven with live text updates throughout the day here on www.cyclingweekly.co.uk>>
TOUR DE FRANCE 2009 LINKS
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STAGE REPORTS
Stage six: Millar's brave bid denied on Barcelona hill as Hushovd triumphs
Stage five: Voeckler survives chase to win his first Tour stage
Stage four: Astana on top but Armstrong misses yellow by hundredths of a second
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Stage three: Cavendish wins second stage as Armstrong distances Contador
Stage two: Cavendish takes first sprint
Stage one: Cancellara wins opening time trial
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Reader comments
Add your commentsJuly 09 22:16
Ramon Agudelo
Hi they are big boys , they know what to do, they souldn't fight they supposed to help each other. THANKS.
July 10 19:23
gmknobl
Mr. Wiggins is being modest. I'm quite a growing fan of Mr. Wiggins with his self-effacing honesty and modesty in the press being quite appealing. What I see no one else saying excluding what might be going on in the Garmin bus, is that if Wiggins keeps his current form up, he has a shot for the podium in Paris. Indeed, he is a threat for the overall that Contador needs to watch carefully, especially considering Mr. Wiggins past. Today, Bradley even attacked the favorites! Wow!
I hope to see him and CVV put on a show in the coming days and make this year a great year for British Cycling and fans of Garmin-Slipstream's clean cycling promotion.
Keep it up Wiggo!