STUFF OF DREAMS
Saturday 21 July / Bonneval to Chartres, 53.5km Time Trial
ROUTE/ From Bonneval to the cathedral city of Chartres, the penultimate stage of the Tour de France 2012 was the second long time trial of the race.
THE CHALLENGE/ To avoid any force majeure.
HOW IT UNFOLDED/ Wiggins simply did what he does best – dominated a time trial – and finished the day with an increased lead in the General Classification, poised to become the first Briton ever to win the Tour de France. Wiggins showed blistering speed to win the stage in 01:04:13, finishing one minute and 16 seconds ahead of Chris Froome, who he now leads in the GC by three minutes and 21 seconds. Team Sky had three men in the top five.
‘It was a beautiful way to finish the Tour with the course lined with cheering fans, many of them waving Union flags. Today was a superb performance. I really wanted to get out there and finish with a bang. Fortunately I managed to do that,’ said Wiggins.
‘It’s the stuff of dreams to win the final time trial and seal the Tour. I was thinking of my wife, children, grandfather, nan with about 20 kilometres to go. It sounds cheesy, but your whole life is for this and the reason I got into cycling as a kid was today.’
Froome was also on the verge of history – no Briton has finished on the Tour podium in 98 previous events. Now there were set to be two. ‘As we saw he’s stronger than me,’ said Froome. ‘I’m very happy. The goal this year was to win the Tour with Bradley. To be second is an added plus.’
Vincenzo Nibali was set to complete the top three despite finishing three minutes and 38 seconds behind Wiggins. The Italian was six minutes and 19 seconds adrift of Wiggins in the overall standings, and almost four minutes clear of fourth-placed Belgian Jurgen Van den Broeck.
Dave Brailsford described the very proud moment: ‘Bar anything silly we can start thinking about winning this race now. I would never have said we could do it if I didn’t believe that. We had done our homework. We knew what Bradley was capable of and what the British team is capable of. Today is all about Bradley – and what a fantastic champion! We are lucky to have Chris and Bradley in the same team. But this was a tour that suited Bradley, he’s climbing well and his time trials are off the scale. That shows why we stuck with Bradley. It’s a lot easier to manage two good riders than two bad ones.’
STAGE 19 RESULT:
Winner. Bradley Wiggins (GB); Team Sky; 1h 4’ 13”
2. Christopher Froome (GB); Team Sky; @ 1’16”
3. Luis Leon Sanchez (Spa); Rabobank; @ 1’50”
OVERALL STANDINGS:
1. Bradley Wiggins (GB); Team Sky; 84h 26’ 31”
2. Christopher Froome (GB); Team Sky; @ 3’21”
3. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita); Liquigas; @ 6’19”
‘Congratulations @bradwiggins. That’s been an inspirational display of athleticism and ambition. You are one of the greats of cycling.’
David Millar on Twitter