British champion takes over red jersey at the expense of teammate Chris Froome as part of Sky’s grand plan
Bradley Wiggins has become the latest in a short list of British riders to have held the race lead in the Vuelta a España. That list includes Robert Millar, who finished second overall in the 1986 race, David Millar (Garmin-Cervélo, then of Cofidis), Mark Cavendish (HTC-Highroad) and, of course, his own Sky teammate Chris Froome. While all but Robert Millar have had the leader’s jersey in recent years, Wiggins is the first to look like either emulating or bettering the Scotsman’s performance.
“I'm absolutely delighted to be in red and cannot thank my team-mates enough,” Wiggins said at the end of the tough mountain stage to the Estación de Esquí Alto de la Manzaneda. “They looked out for me and Froomey right the way through the stage and did a fantastic job.”
Wiggins’ taking of the race lead was in no small part due to the phenomenal efforts made by Froome who, while wearing the red jersey himself, wound up the pace of the peloton on the final climb, chasing down any number of attacks. Wiggins moved up from third to first in the overall classification, with Froome and then second place Jakob Fuglsang (Leopard Trek) losing to Wiggins’ group.
While watching the red jersey work hard for a teammate might have upset some purists though, Team Sky had been following a pre-organised plan, as Wiggins explained.
“Froomey rode tremendously well, as he seems to be doing every stage at the moment, and it was a really nice touch that he rode straight over to me and congratulated me at the end there,” he said.
“Had I been fifth or sixth on GC, we would have done it the same way,” the British champion explained. “We stuck to the plan after the time trial. Chris had a fantastic time trial; the red jersey for one day was a bonus for the great form he showed.
“I came here for GC [the general classification – ed] and Chris was again fantastic for me,” he added. ‘It was just a case of keeping the pace fast.”
Just like the climb to Sierra Nevada on stage four, the road to la Manzaneda was never really steep enough for the top climbers to put in any devastating attacks, with the road surface itself – as well as a strong headwind – causing greater problems. Although he similarly took control of the peloton on the steeper climb to la Covatilla in stage nine, la Manzaneda itself was good for Wiggins’ characteristics.
“When I ride at threshold like that on a climb that suits me like this one today, not many guys can attack me,” he explained. “[Katusha’s Joaquim] Rodríguez can and maybe [Liquigas-Cannondale’s Vincenzo] Nibali. I was confident at the foot that everything would be ok.”
In the event, only Rodriguez was able to get away and, since he was more than three minutes behind Wiggins he refused to panic. With a little help from Nibali the British champion managed to limit the Catalan rider to seven seconds on the finish line.
“It was chilly out there on that final climb but I felt comfortable right the way to the finish,” he said. “When Rodriguez attacked there was no point in trying to follow him and as always, I just kept a steady pace and worked my way to the top. To have Team Sky one and two on the podium is about as good as it gets really.
Wiggins is riding the Vuelta a España with the double objective of salvaging his season, after crashing out of the Tour de France, and experimenting with riding a time trial championship after a hard Grand Tour. Less than two weeks after the Vuelta Wiggins will ride the World championship time trial in Copenhagen, Denmark; this will give him a feeling of whether it will be possible to ride the tour de France to win next year and still challenge for Olympic gold in his home town of London.
“From now on, as it was today, it’s going to be all about defending this jersey and trying to hold on to it for as long as possible,” he said. “It's been a tough old race so far but hopefully things will be a little easier tomorrow and I can keep myself out of trouble.”