Having achieved the feat of reaching the podium of both the Vuelta a España and the World championship time trial, Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) has set his sights squarely on 2012. Part of the reason for riding the Vuelta to win was to see how the 31-year-old could perform in a major time trial just a few weeks later; having achieved the silver medal in Copenhagen, Wiggins now feels that he will be able to take on the Tour de France next July, then go for gold in the Olympic Games in his hometown, London.
In an interview with the BBC Wiggins explained how he feels he is capable of taking the Tour/Olympic double next summer.
“The Olympics is something I’ve done a few times now, so it’s an ongoing process really, to get as much Olympic gold as possible,” he said. “But the Tour de France isn’t going to be there for ever for me, and I think that the opportunity I have now to win the Tour, is so great that I can’t afford to miss another year; I missed this year already.
“So it’s not that one takes more importance than the other,” he added. “It’s that I want everything in my life, and I want it all next year.”
Having managed to take third in the Vuelta – where he was one place behind his revelatory teammate Chris Froome – and second in the World championship time trial – where he beat four-time champion Fabian Cancellara, Wiggins now has the confidence to take on the double next summer.
“I believe that I can win both the Tour de France and Olympic gold,” he said, “otherwise I wouldn’t be doing it. I certainly wouldn’t be compromising one over the other by just trying to do both.
“Just because of my results this year really, and the way the sport is now,” he explained. “I believe I can.”
Prior to the 2009 Tour de France, Wiggins was largely regarded as a supremely talented track rider, who could apply that talent to prologues, time trials and smaller races, much like his predecessor Chris Boardman. That all changed when he took fourth place in Paris, just 37 seconds behind Lance Armstrong on the third step of the podium.
This transformation surprised many, but for Wiggins the reason for it is very simple.
“It’s just hard work, you know,” he said. “I’d never really put the work in before. Now I’ve got a new team behind me, a new coaching team and it’s taken a long time to get to the maturity and everything as an athlete; you realise what it takes to compete at that level.
“I’ve done a lot in the past on pure talent and short periods of hard work,” he continued, “and the Tour de France over the last few years has really kind of opened things up for me in terms of how much the human body is capable of doing, and just how good you can be.”
His high profile move to the new Sky team in 2010 saw him flop at the Tour, under pressure; a broken collarbone ended this year’s race, which he had started on a high following his victory in the Critérium du Dauphiné, but his comeback at the Vuelta proved that his 2009 performance had been no fluke.
“That’s what this whole thing’s about for me really,” he said. “It was a bit of a shock a couple of years ago, getting up there in it, and it’s been a whole sort of voyage of discovery since then.”
How far Wiggins can go, and how many years he can keep it up, will be seen in the coming seasons, but the British champion feels that he is now in his physical prime and is capable of continued improvement.
“I don’t know really,” he said. “This time last year I would never have imagined I’d have had the season I’ve had this year, so it’s just constantly evolving really; constantly making gains, and constantly making small mistakes, that aren’t perhaps visible to other people; and learning from those mistakes; and moving forward, just in everything you do: in training, equipment, the way you race; the team’s getting stronger all the time, and it’s just constantly moving.
“So I don’t know how long I can take it to,” he added, “it’s certainly not going to be an age thing. I think, in cycling, these are going to be the prime years now really; it’s more of a mental thing: how long can you sustain that high level of concentration, high level of intensity; the training and everything that goes with it.”
With his fourth place in 2009, Wiggins equalled the best ever finish at the Tour de France, set by Robert Millar in 1984. With Froome also equalling the Scotsman’s Vuelta second place of 1986, with Wiggins third, it surely won’t be long before a Briton makes the Tour podium. If Wiggins can do this in 2012, and then go on to Olympic glory, he will become a British cycling legend.