I wonder if he has a 'John Bull' puncture repair kit in there ?

I can just see his dad following him with a bowl of water so he can work out where the puncture is in the inner-tube.

Carrying his 'bike pump' in his other hand !!!

i wonder if he has his mom's 3 bent spoons in the bag instead of tyre levers

10,000 calories a day is about the norm.

He looks as though he has a low body fat %. Does anyone kbow what it is?

Spot of sugar on them then?

As an aside I always enjoy the Eurosport commentators laconic translations of the foreign riders. Shame he can't do the same for the Irish fella that commentates with him.

Great that he supports Wigan, but I'd be stretched to call him an athlete.

As my boss said, he looks like a 'skag head'. He's impossibly thin.

Anyone who does the miles those riders do, going up some of those mountains is definitely an athlete. Different athletes have different body shapes depending on their sport.

Anyone who does 34hours per week on a bike is an athlete in my book.

What a bizarre thing to say!

Of course he is. It's his job to ride up the side of mountains at about 20mph. Power to weight ratio is his money winner. He has to ride every kind of geography there is day after day for three weeks. Not an athlete? He's impossibly thin on 10,000 calories a day. That's how easy this is.

I agree.



A few years ago I read Lance Armstrong's 'Its not about the bike" by chance even though I have no interest in cycling. What an inspirational read it turned out to be with the things he went through and then subsequently achieved.

I agree.

Phil 'the power' Taylor now there's an athlete!

As Sid Waddell says ' these boys have got to be really fit'.

This is probably the comment of the year

try doing just one day of what Wiggins does and then say hes not an athlete. The tours are one of the hardest athletic comps going!

Given the recent accusations that's a pretty unfortunate title for a book!

What exactly do you class as an athlete?

I was involved with a coaching session with the Brisbane team when they played Saints possibly 8 years ago in a world club championship, they were training at the EIS in Manchester.

All of them to a man crowded round a cyclist on a treadmill after there session to applaud him as he was peddling at full pelt at a ridiculous angle as the treadmill rose.

Lockyer stayed behind after to talk to the lad, and it was not to give the cyclist a thrill as he had no idea who there big Australian guys were.

Someone that doesn't look like they're cooking up heroin just out of camera shot.

So Hock wasn't an athlete when he was dabbling in his stuff then? Pfft.

I've done quite a few rides similar to a stage of the Tour and do so after training maybe 15 hours a week on the bike. Let me tell you, these boys would kill me, and they do it every day for 3 weeks.

Go out for a ride with a pro and try and keep up for 10 minutes, your opinion of their athletic ability might change.

Just to play devils advocate, its hardly a sport with a "clean" image. Older sports fans here will know that, for all their athletism, which cannot be denied, the sport has been dogged for decades with controvery and suspicion. I point these comments at no one in particular, just the sport in general.

Lets be honest though, do we think other sports don't have the same issues? One thing you have to admit is that they take testing a lot more seriously than other sports, and that's why they catch a lot of dopers.

Are we seriously saying with all the money in sports like football and tennis that athletes aren't doing just the same things to try and get an edge? I'd be staggered.

I woud staggered too, but if you have been following sport a while, you will know that suggestions and proof of foul play in cycling is longstanding and well documented.

I'm not disputing that

Just saying that I think cyclists are not more dishonest than other athletes, but cycling is considerably better at catching dopers than other sports.

I mean Joey Johns said he was taking stuff at the World Cup and even with Tallis ratting him to the authorities nothing was done.

A lot of sports are happy to play lip service to this and brush it under the carpet.

Could be that its easier to shoot rats when there are more of them... As i started by saying i'm playing devils advocate, i don't care much for the sport.

*shrug* maybe. Don't really want to detract from Wiggins though as he's a fantastic athlete doing a wonderful job out in France. Big stage for him today. If he does well today then it's hard to see him being beaten.