The Tour de France

But there are 3 different stages and he is worse than two of his teammates in two out of those three but he is still clearly the better guy..?

EDIT: Ah, right, so because there were a lot of time trial stages it was decided by Team Sky that Wiggins should win?
 
Josh - Ignore the 'sprint' stages - they don't matter to GC contenders.

The backing of a single man as team leader generally assumes that his team-mate does not finish second. I suppose its the lack of competition to Sky which has caused that particular issue.
 
As racecub explained so eloquently it is primarily a team sport, however, here's the complicated explanation ;)

You have a team of 9 riders, of these 9, you'll ideally need a sprinter, a climber and a time trialist and then you'll have the rest as domestiques - these are the dog's body of the team who sacrifice their own chances of success for the team leaders. They ferry food and water, provide spare wheels and even surrender their bikes in the event of a mechanical problem.

Generally, climbers aren't good sprinters and vice versa, so some of the domestiques are roulers who's main job is steady, consistent riding and who can take long turns on the front of a group of riders for hours at a time, therefore pacing the main group (peleton) to keep their team leader in the hunt and to chase down any rogue breakaways at the front should it be needed.

I hope this has made it much less clearer for you ;)

More team tactics than F1 ;)
 
Listen I don't want to knock having the first ever British winner of the tour of France thingy but it is crystal clear to me that this event was almost tailor made for Wiggins, I believe he even said it himself last October when the course details were released.
 
Hope there are not too many new cycling viewers to today's final stage just because of Wiggins certainty to win...
.......... they'll all have pissed off down the pub by now moaning about how boring it all is! :snigger:
 
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I don't really give two toots for the race itself but they said on the Radio this morning that after receiving his trophy or whatever you get for winning, Wiggins had to step up to the mike to make his winning speech and began by saying "and now it's time to draw the raffle prizes".

Now that's legendary. ROFL

A bet some of the corporate people had a heart attack.
 
He also said "Have a safe trip home and don't drink too much." Not as good but I still think its kinda funny. Not really sure why though.
 
Having just railed against the fact that NBC Sports is airing Le Tour right now, it is interesting to note that there is a bus stuck and blocking the finish line. It is currently wedged under the banner/advertising/timing structure erected there.

Edit- they're going to take the results from the 3km mark. They will probably sprint to that point. 8km left.

Double edit - big wreck. This a cluster**** and a half
 
Top 3 sprinters out

Final edit- so they got the bus free, and decided to race home. But since they thought they were racing to the 3km mark when the crash happened, and they were within 3km of that, they're going to give everyone the same time.
 
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