Team Sky principal Dave Brailsford has conceded that the squad’s top Grand Tour contender Bradley Wiggins was under too much pressure in 2010, and that his performances were most likely affected as a result.
“Bradley's fourth place changed his life professionally and financially. I don't think his gold medals at previous Olympics changed his life in the same way,” he told the Guardian. “He had a lot of recalibrating to do, and there was this massive weight of expectation that we need to go one better now. And I think that's a burden for anyone to carry.”
Wiggins finished an unexpected fourth in the 2009 Tour de France, equalling Britain’s previous best finish by Robert Millar in 1984. He achieved that as part of the laid-back Garmin-Transitions team, but then signed a multi-million pound contract with Team Sky.
Backed by a large media corporation, this signing plus the greater public awareness and expectation meant that he was far more pressured than in the past. He returned to the Tour aiming to ride strongly, but never reached the same form. He ended the race in 24th place.
Brailsford acknowledges that the expectation got to him, and that he was also on the edge as he is not necessarily a natural team leader. That too brought demands and complicated things for Wiggins. “I think you can get put into leadership roles because of your performance and attributes on your bike. That doesn't mean that you're automatically going to a leader of men,” he explained.
“And I think there is a danger in that and we need to be aware of it. Someone can go very, very fast and ride a bike supremely well, but he may not necessarily have all the gifts of everything else in life. We tend to do that with sports people. You think, 'Right, he's a brilliant, brilliant bike rider or a fantastic cricketer – so he must know everything about life.' He must be a wine connoisseur who knows all his cheeses as well. And of course he doesn't. He's just a bike rider.
“In Bradley's case, it's important for him to have key riders around him who can take some of that responsibility and that leadership role. His job is just to go fast on that bike – that's it.”
The team has placed less emphasis on the Tour de France this season. Rather than chasing that as the ultimate target, which very much was the goal in 2010, Team Sky has said that it wants to take many wins with many different riders. Other races will be important, and success won’t just be about what happens in July.
That will take the heat off Wiggins, and could end up enabling him to perform closer to his 2009 level.
Brailsford is convinced there were two issues at play last season. “There was a psychological impact there,” he explained. “But physically, as well….I don't think physically he was at the same level he was the year before. That great level of form he had in 2009 kind of crept up on him. It came to him. He didn't chase it. It came to him, and that's a big difference. Once you start chasing form, it's so dependent on your physical state.”
“This year, it's an aim of 'Let's train properly, let's race as well as we can and do everything right, and let's see how it goes.”