The Bradley Wiggins Show by Eurosport

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Tokyo 2020: Pidcock, Dumoulin, AVV and the Refugee Team Jul 29, 2021

Show notes

Sir Bradley Wiggins and Orla Chennaoui summarise an action-packed first week of cycling action at Tokyo 2020 with a look at both the men's and women's road races and time trials.

There's also a look at the mountain bike event, won by Team GB's Tom Pidcock, as well as a reflection on how athletes deal with the mental weight of competing at the Olympics. Wiggins adds that he will never forget Tom Dumoulin’s post-race interview after the men's time trial.

The pair also take time to acknowledge cyclists from the Refugee Olympic Team and why their story is so important.

Finally, there is a look ahead to the track events which kick off next week.

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‘Phenomenal Van Aert favourite for Olympic gold’ | Maybe Merckx record is best left as is? Jul 18, 2021

Show notes

The Tour de France arrives on the Champs-Élysées for the most prestigious sprint stage in cycling. Sir Brad and Graham Willgoss were hoping for a bit of history from Mark Cavendish, but instead saw a thrilling finish in the heart of Paris and a third stage victory of the race for Wout van Aert.

“I don’t think anyone would deny Van Aert,” says Brad. “What he’s done this race is truly exceptional. He’s won a mountain stage over the Ventoux, he’s won a time trial and he’s won a Champs-Élysées sprint stage. The kid is on another level in terms of his all-round ability.”

And what about the resurgence of Mark Cavendish, who finished third on the day, the comeback story of the Tour?

“I was disappointed for Cav,” says Brad. “I know he’s an absolute winner and he’ll be gutted with today. That was the one he wanted to win the most. But let’s look at what he’s come away with: equalling the record of Eddy Merckx, four stage wins and he’s taken the Green Jersey 10 years after he last won it.

“It’s nice that he’s up there with Eddy Merckx… Sometimes things are best left as they are.”

It’s Tokyo next for Van Aert. Can he carry his form into the Olympics?

“Wout is the best rider in the world at the moment,” says Brad. “And the most versatile. The guy is phenomenal. I have huge respect for him. He’s now the favourite for the road race – he has to be. And I’d love to see him win it.”

Brad, too, will be aboard the next flight to Japan with Podcast Pete. Catch him there for our next episode.

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The Bradley Wiggins Show is produced by Pete Burton.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The loneliness of the Yellow Jersey | ‘Terrified Carapaz showed defeatist attitude’ Jul 18, 2021

Show notes

Sir Brad and Graham 'door destroyer' Willgoss are in a brand new van talking Stage 20 of the Tour de France, when Team UAE’s 22-year-old Tadej Pogacar won his second Yellow Jersey with another masterful performance beyond his years.

“I actually got a little bit emotional on the bike,” says Brad, who followed Pogacar on the moto. “Listening to the roar of noise coming up the road, and him shooting through – and the crowd went crazy.

“I followed him for the last 10km to the end then, and he was shifting. He was rocking and rolling. It just shows that after three weeks of racing, he is not infallible. He is beatable, on any given day.”

It was a moment that also took Brad back to the 2012 time trial.

“I remember it being the most lonely, solitary place being in that time trial. And the whole world is watching you, being the leader of the Tour de France. Everything that’s going through your mind after three weeks of racing, the closer you get to the finish. And I knew exactly what he was going through.”

Elsewhere, Brad wasn’t impressed with the approach of Team Ineos’s main man:

“I went to the start house, and Richard Carapaz looked terrified… then he got up to fist-bump Jonas Vingegaard. It showed a defeatist attitude before he set off that he knew he wasn’t going to get those six seconds back.

“There’s psychological warfare going on, and it’s a moment you can really put your opponents off by not doing much… If I’m sat there as Vingegaard, that says a lot to me.”

On to sprints, champagne and perhaps a record-breaking final stage on the Champs-Elysees.

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The Bradley Wiggins Show is produced by Pete Burton.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pogačar the patron of the peloton | ‘Cav has the whole race against him’ Jul 17, 2021

Show notes

Matej Mohorič wheeled away from the break to take a second victory on Stage 19 of the Tour de France on a day when Yellow Jersey Tadej Pogačar showed the pack who’s the boss.

“It was good to see him taking control of the race from the leader’s point of view, because everyone looks up to him now, he’s clearly the best rider, and I think that’s a good sign of the next few years, of what’s to come,” says Brad. “I think we’ve got a patron back in the peloton.

“Marking his dominance, at the front of the peloton, in the Yellow Jersey, on world TV, I thought that’s exactly what he should be doing. There’s no unity in the peloton.”

Brad also gives co-host Graham Willgoss a crash course in crash tactics from his 2012 playbook, and questions whether there is unrest in the Team Ineos camp.

Break, or bunch sprint? That was the question on a stage where the big question was whether Mark Cavendish would surpass Eddy Merckx’s record of 34 stage victories.

“It doesn’t work out every day,” says Brad. “The team has done quite a big job to get him to this point and the racing’s frantic. It’s not always as easy as just making it become a sprint when you’ve got the whole race against you, which I think he has, reading between the lines. It’s very difficult. Everyone will know it was the last-chance saloon for a lot of people today, so it was always going to be difficult to control and martial it.”

So, where does that leave Cav? “The record is still on,” says Brad. “He’s got the Green Jersey sewn up.”

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The Bradley Wiggins Show is produced by Pete Burton.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

‘No way to crack Pogacar’ | Cav perfectly poised Jul 15, 2021

Show notes

Stage 18 of the Tour de France saw a second dominant victory for Tadej Pogačar in the clouds of the Pyrenees, on the summit finish of Luz Ardiden – where Sir Brad and Graham Willgoss are marooned in a traffic jam for their latest look back at the day’s racing.

Did a short and sharp stage – just short of 130km with two HC climbs – play into the champion elect’s hands?

“He didn’t really have to blow his rivals away, he just did the last bit,” says Brad on Pogačar’s supremacy. “They could have done with another climb in there really, instead of having 60-70km on the flat beforehand.

“Stages like that, with climbs like that, almost need another two climbs in there to make it a proper Pyrenean stage. It lends itself to everyone being fresh at the end.”

Questions, too, for Ineos, still empty-handed at this Tour. We saw the familiar Ineos (/Sky) mountain train of old going full gas on the final climb, but that just meant Pogacar willingly climbed aboard.

“Is it worth doing that knowing they were going to get beat in the end? There was no way they were going to crack him.”

Brad says it would have been a very different Tour had G and Roglic not crashed. But as things stand, Pogačar not only holds the Maillot Jaune but also the Young Rider’s and Polka Dot Jerseys. But not the Points Jersey.

Full of praise for Mark Cavendish’s Deceuninck – Quick-Step team for guiding the Green Jersey through the mountains, Brad says his old friend is in the perfect position to make history with two more flat stages to come.

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The Bradley Wiggins Show is produced by Pete Burton.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

'Pogacar sees red to take win in Yellow' | A change of mentality for Ineos? Jul 15, 2021

Show notes

Brad welcomes back Bernie Eisel to talk over how the blue touch paper was lit on the Col du Portet for a statement victory from Tadej Pogacar over his nearest General Classification challengers on Stage 17 of the Tour de France.

In the company of Graham Willgoss, the pair discuss how Pogacar's UAE team are finally showing themselves to be the strongest in the race: "UAE isolated Richard Carapaz, and we expected it to be the other way around," says Brad.

"Pogacar wanted to put a mark on it: 'I'm here to win this Tour,'" says Bernie. "And it makes it easier for the team in the coming days... his team just took it on. It was great to watch, and it was the first time they had to do something in the mountains."

But was Pogacar, at one point, going to let Carapaz have the stage? Brad thinks that might have been on the cards, but after Carapaz refused to pull his wait on the front, Brad wonders whether Pogacar called his bluff, "got pissed off and went for it himself".

The 2012 Tour de France winner also asks: are we seeing a change of mentality at Ineos?

"They're kind of smiling and accepting that some of their riders aren't up to the standard," says Brad. "And it never used to be like that. Sean Yates would come off afterwards and he'd want answers as to why you didn't do your job."

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The Bradley Wiggins Show is produced by Pete Burton.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ineos threat looming | 'Matthews a serious threat to Cav's green jersey' Jul 14, 2021

Show notes

Brad steps off the bike after Stage 16 of the Tour de France to talk over the day's events with Graham Willgoss in Toulouse – Brad's home when he first signed for the Linda McCartney Racing Team.

"It was quite an anti-climatic day for the GC on a stage where everyone is pre-empting the next two days," says Brad. "It might have been one stage too many. The race is in bits already. The harder you make the course... it almost neutralised the race today with what they've done already and what's to come."

Bora-Hansgrohe's Patrick Konrad proved strongest on the day, with another breakaway win. It is, says Brad, an impressive turnaround: "Kudos to Bora! They've had a great race since Peter Sagan went home."

With time running out for Ineos to make up time with Richard Carapaz, Brad is certain the next two summit finish stages will provide a platform to take the fight for the yellow jersey to Tadej Pogacar.

"I think the next two days, Ineos are looming to do something."

And what of the race for green - can anyone really challenge Mark Cavendish?

"Michael Matthews is the one," says Brad. "He's been in the break the last two days... He's not going to win a stage – he always falls short because of the severity of the stages and he's kind of halfway between being a sprinter and a puncheur. But by notching up points like he has been, he's become a serious threat to Cav's green jersey."

Brought to you by Zwift, where fun is fast.

The Bradley Wiggins Show is produced by Pete Burton.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Chef's kiss for Sepp Kuss | 'Ineos have to change tactics’ Jul 12, 2021

Show notes

Stage 15 of the Tour de France was another brutal affair, ending in a brilliant breakaway victory for Jumbo-Visma's Sepp Kuss. Sir Brad and Bernie Eisel look back on an epic day of racing in the Pyrenees in the company of Graham Willgoss.

But is Kuss too nice to be a killer on the bicycle? Brad thinks so. Bernie’s not so sure: "Riders, when they put their cycling shoes on, put their helmet on, they're absolutely a different person," he says. "Trying to be that leader, and delivering at the moment it's expected? Chapeau."

In what could have been a big day for the GC shake-up, Brad says Ineos played into Tadej Pogacar's hands: "They did the job UAE should have been doing, but they don't have the leader to match him and finish it off. They have to change tactics. I'd have liked to have seen G and Richie Porte in the break, and see how that panned out.”

There is no doubt who will be happiest heading into the rest day. Especially with the mountain tests ahead – with or without back-up.

“Pogacar has the solo ability to do what he likes,” says Brad. “Whereas I really relied on my teammates.”

Brad and Bernie agree that, for Mark Cavendish, the Green Jersey is coming home – and more stage wins could well be on their way for the Manx Missile.

“Cav’s got through the worst of it now, he’s going to be fine,” says Brad. “I think we could see him take two more stages, with Paris.”

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The Bradley Wiggins Show is produced by Pete Burton.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Swashbuckling Mollema goes solo | Tadej’s tactical coup Jul 11, 2021

Show notes

Sir Brad and Graham Willgoss look back on Stage 14 of the Tour de France, and Bauke Mollema's 40km lone attack that saw him climb to victory in the foothills of the Pyrenees.

"That was the most impressive race I’ve seen him win," says Brad. "He had a lot of work to do, and I’m surprised there weren't more attacks from behind to try and bring him back in."

The Trek-Segafredo man picked his moment to take advantage of a peloton Brad believes has many riders running on fumes:

"There were so many tired legs today. A lot of people are really spent now, on this Tour. The race has just been frantic – they got through 100km in the first two hours."

On a day when UAE were happy for the break to go, there was some criticism as to why they wouldn’t commit earlier to driving on the front. But Brad believes Yellow Jersey Tadej Pogacar’s right to say other teams have got to take up the riding with Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), the day's big winner, jumping from ninth to second overall.

“That’s put more pressure on Ineos and EF Education First from Rigo Uran’s point of view,” says Brad. “And it was either a tactical coup, or they bluffed it.”

Brought to you by Zwift, where fun is fast.

The Bradley Wiggins Show is produced by Pete Burton.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

'Merckx and true inspiration Cav's record will never be beaten' | Mark Cavendish is the greatest sprinter of all time Jul 10, 2021

Show notes

Brad is joined by Bernie Eisel on a day for the history books when their old teammate Mark Cavendish equalled the great Eddy Merck's record of 34 stage wins at the Tour de France.

Reflecting in the company of Graham Willgoss on Cav going deep to match The Cannibal's legendary landmark on Stage 13 of the Tour, the pair agreed the two riders can't be compared.

"You don't have to compare them," says Brad. "Merckx is the greatest cyclist of all time. Cav is the best British cyclist of all time, and the greatest sprinter of all time. And he's up there with Eddy Merckx in terms of tally...

"Is anyone going to beat Cav's record? I don't think another sprinter will. Is anyone ever going to beat the record of Merckx and Cav as the greatest sprinter of all time and the greatest cyclist of all time?

Brad and Bernie also pick the Cav stage wins they've been involved in that mean the most to them – and Brad believes his old mate isn't done just yet: "I wouldn't underestimate how well Cav is going, and it's not because other people aren't here."

A tough road lies ahead, with five stages into the heart of the Pyrenees. But Bernie is sure Cav will make it through, given the strength of his Deceuninck Quick-Step team.

"I had to bring him through the Pyrenees on my own, with Mark Renshaw crying on the wheel!" he says. "Now he has four, five guys even, around him!"

Bernie also solves the mystery of Cav's chain coming off at the finish every time.

Elsewhere, there is praise for Omer Goldstein's combative day out in the breakaway – and for Simon Yates, who DNF'ed after hitting the road hard in a crash.

"Coming out of the Giro, your body and your brain are just like: 'How much more can you take?'" says Bernie. "Everybody has to understand: it has been the hardest first 12 days of racing we have ever seen in the Tour de France."

Brought to you by Zwift, where fun is fast.

The Bradley Wiggins Show is produced by Pete Burton.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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