• Tour de France

Tour is a piece of cake - Wiggins

ESPN staff
June 30, 2010
Bradley Wiggins will lead Team Sky at their first Tour de France © Getty Images
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Triple Olympic champion Bradley Wiggins is in confident mood ahead of attempting to rewrite Tour de France history by becoming the first British racer to win the event.

The 30-year-old, who recently said that claiming the famous yellow jersey would mean more to him than winning an Olympic medal, leads the newly-formed Team Sky into their first appearance in cycling's most famous race.

Wiggins, who is one of seven Brits competing this year, finished fourth in last year's race to equal the best-ever finish by a British rider and he sees no reason why he cannot be a genuine contender to win the overall event.

"It's a piece of cake compared to an Olympic final," Wiggins said. "The mental aspect of the Tour is a doddle. However, physically it is three weeks of hard effort.

"But there is nothing to compare to what you're thinking sitting in the gate with 50 seconds to go."

Former Team Sky senior sporting director Scott Sunderland, who was an integral force in establishing the Dave Brailsford-run squad, feels Wiggins must adopt the concentration for which Lance Armstrong is renowned for in order to fulfill his ambition of winning the race.

"Lance Armstrong, for me, his strongest point is his concentration and his focus; that's always served him well," Sunderland said. "Even when he was involved in any small incident, he was very quick to recover from it.

"The biggest thing for Brad that he will have to be careful of is being prudent every day, the whole day and having the team around him at all times.

"It's going to be difficult, but at the end of the day he knows who the players are for this race and the teams with the strength. Consistency is the most important thing for him throughout the whole tour. Every second counts - not throwing away any time in crashes or being caught behind in splits is vital."

The 97th edition of the Tour gets underway in Rotterdam on Saturday.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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