So you do it on how someone looks rather than their actual athletic abilities. Interesting approach.

There's never been a time when cycling was clean. Wiggins has his doubters now. He probably has a few more after the way he responded to indirect hints from a journalist the other day. When Sky started they were banging all kinds of drums about proving someone could win a tour clean. They don't bang that drum quite as hard as they used to and they have a tainted doctor on board now. Are they still a clean team? I think so. I think Wiggins probably is too given his own past outbursts against team mates and the teams he has since been on (Garmin were and still are fantically anti-drug too).

It's right to doubt though, and it's up to him to learn to deal with those doubts. As a student of the sport's history he knows as well as anyone just how many disappointments there have been. There are whole swathes of past winners no longer entitled to call themselves winners of the tour.

At least they don't rub cocaine into their eyeballs anymore. They just have their blood replaced twice a day now.

[/u


And lets be honest, who, on here, can say they have never done that !!

Class post.

You can't argue with the interest this can generate. Look at how many on here are taking an interest just because they've seen this picture.
I don't remember many comments when he was fourth a few years ago or even when as a favourite he crashed out last year but show a wigan boot bag and bingo people are interested .
Now we need to capitalize on his popularity.
Get him to ride a lap of honour and deliver the match ball in the yellow jersey

After today's stage it's his to lose now.

pity the club hasn't got him a cherry and white shirt to wear on the podium before he pulls on the "maillot jaune" at the end of a stage

there's plenty of time to freight one over to him !!
wouldnt it be cool if he was wearing on the Champs Ellyses (sp?) IF he were to win

He will be sponsored to the eyeballs, and it would cost shed loads to get something on him, and those with something on him would not like something else there, but stranger things have happened.

you're right of course, but i wasnt thinking of the Club paying.
surely if wiggy happened by accident to have been sent a shirt by the Ckub, it would be up to him to decide if he wanted to wear it or not



lets face it - the Club ought to send him one anyway as a gesture of goodwill and good luck !!! (maybe give him his own squad number if he wins

Wouldbe brill if something did happen, if only for us lot to know what the shirt is and have a chuckle about it.

Love the criticism of Wiggins' build. Apparently he isn't an athlete because he's thin



By that logic marathon runners aren't athletes.



That Paul Radcliffe, she might hold the women's marathon world record but she's too puny to be an athlete, she's rubbish she is, looks like she's an extra from Trainspotting.....











As for drugs, well yes there have been serious issues in cycling with drugs. Quite why Wiggins doesn't deserve the benefit of the doubt though is beyond me.

All this is the old British disease of putting the boot in on successful people.

Here's a guy currently leading the biggest event in a major world sport which, aside from on the track, we are normally rubbish at as a country.

The Tour de France is a massive global sports event. Sadly for RL it is probably bigger in profile than the entire sport of RL. And Wiggins is dominating it at the moment.

We should be celebrating a fantastic British athlete, one of the greatest this country has ever produced, and one who is proud to associate himself publicly with rugby league and Wigan rugby in particular.

Go Wiggo go!

to be fair, I think a lot of the comment is based upon the history of cycling (where in past tours cyclists have even doped whilst in the saddle !!

)
a lot of people have just stated that whatever wiggins does, he will always be doubted to an extent by recent events (too many cyclists to mention but at least 3 previous tour winners have been banned for doping).

cycling at the moment is at the same stage that sprinting was before Usain Bolt. they needed a new hero, and so does cycling. and lets face it - when a 100m athlete puts in a good time, who doesnt have a part of their brain that thinks ..." i wonder how clean they REALLY are ???"

perhaps wiggins is capable of being that new hero ! (probably not, but maybe he is).

come on wiggy ! get that jersey !

I think you will find one person made a comment about his build and how he looked, and that was just repeating someone else, and nobody has cast any aspersions about drugs. Lets not make mountains out of mole hills ehh...

Exactly. I'd be all over it like a fatty in a cake shop.

Have you and your boss seen Sam Tomkins? Do you both think he's a train conductor or a waiter? Build has nothing to do with it.
Its been mention Wiggins is on a par with Federer, I totally disagree with that Fed is GOD, but compare Fed with Nadal physically, then compare the grand slams totals.....
Come on Bradley, win that bleeding tour and come home to a Wigan reception and a chunky steak pie from Galloways

More of an athlete than an athlete,and if thats what "skag"does then hook me up, could do to lose a few pounds.

Do you know were red rock hill is ??

ride up and down that for 5 hours without a rest, then come back and make that statement.

My boss hasn't seen Sam Tomkins, he's a southerner. Obviously I have as I had a season ticket for quite a while until last year.

Having also seen what Sam Tomkins looks like under that shirt that's obviously a silly statement.

I didn't question Wiggins' cycling ability. I just stated that he doesn't look like an athlete. I'm 99% sure I'd beat him at anything that didn't involve pedaling as he is impossibly thin and frail looking.

Ok. And I could run faster than Wayne Rooney because he looks fat and fat people can't run unless it's to the pie shop.

I genuinely despair sometimes!

Italian sprinter Mario Cipollini was a serial stage winner back in the 90's and took to the podium in his favourite football kit once, so there is form. Think he got fined quite a bit for this stunt though.



The way Froome is riding at the moment we'll have to take advantage of Wiggins whilst we can as next year he'll be fighting his own team mate for glory I think.

To be fair if Wiggins and Froome were doing what they were doing for an England rugby League team the internet would be full of people moaning about them being actually eligible to be selected seem as neither were born in England.

Personnaly I believe that if Wiggins keeps up his level of performance and goes on to win the tour (and by some margin the way he's going and with a 51km time-trial to come) then I would put this as the greatest British sporting performance of the 21st century to date (with Cavendish last year second).

My only disappointment with Wiggins is with his selection of boot-bag though I have e-mailed the ProSky Racing sponsorship manager to point out that Wiggins is using un-solicited equipment, hopefully he'll sort it out.


On a personal level I'm more than happy with the way things are going as I put £25 on Wiggins to win this year's tour after he crashed out last year.

If he can go on to win the race, it would obviously be a tremendous achievement. There is absolutely no doubting the dedication and effort that cyclists put in (even amateur ones put in levels of time and effort that I am personally not willing to match).

This is one reason I laugh about fat people telling me that it's their "glands". Utter crap. Follow the training regime of these guys and I guarantee weight would drop off them.

Sure the sport has had it's doping issues (Lance Armstrong is currently embroilled in one at the moment), but that doesn't mean everyone is at it.

Best of luck Bradley!

Quite. If he wins the Tour (if), it must also be remembered that he has also won Paris Nice, Tour of Romandie and the Dauphine this season as well, so it would be a season the like of which has not been seen for many, many years. On form as well you have to say he is one of the favourites for the Olympic time trial.