British epiphany in Spain and Gilbert shows he's human in Canada

When, just 20 months ago, a new team formed from a little known area in cycling terms called Great Britain did nobody expect two of its recruits to be standing on the final podium in a grand tour.

But here we are today. The Vuelta á Espana is one of the most prestigious races in the world and today Bradley Wiggins and Christopher Froome of Team Sky took the 2nd and 3rd places in the final general classification. It was anticipated that Brad would be the team leader and would earn his place in the time trial while having to hang on through the climbing stages.  Froome began as the main man to martial Wiggins up the climbs and did a stellar job by setting a very high pace for the last few km's and then letting Brad take over. This would be the formula for the rest of the tour.

Then came the time trial where Wiggins was expected to take the lead after performing better than he had hoped on the early mountain stages; but it was Froome who placed 2nd on the stage behind Tony Martin and took the red jersey. Speculation was rife as to wether he would still ride for Wiggins or not and he ended up sacrificing himself and potentially a win for his leader. It turned out that Brad did not have the legs to stay with the eventual winner Juan Jose Cobo on the gruelling 23% Angrilu climb and unfortunately it appeared as though Chris Froome was stronger and if Team Sky had ridden for him after that oh so impressive time trial, then he could have worn the red jersey into Madrid.

A lot of people are saying that Dave Brailsford made a big mistake to stick with Wiggins as theeir guy for the GC but the fact of the matter is that they could not have known how strong Froome was. While Wiggins is a proven 3 week rider, Froome was a revelation in giving this class of performance and what would Sky have done if his fitness level had dropped off towards the end leaving them with no cards to play. Ultimately the critics have to ask themselves, would you rather have two riders on the podium albeit not on the top step, or have one rider in 4th or even lower?

Look at it from a different perspective...British cycling has reached new heights today. Before Team Sky there were only one or two cyclists at a time (E.g. Robert Millar, Chris Boardman, David Millar, Mark Cavendish) that could do anything on the European road scene. Now, much like the Leopard Trek did for Luxembourg in the Tour de France, we have two riders whose names will be spoken of worldwide. Along with the likes of Ben Swift and Geraint Thomas, these riders have out in world class performances on world wide stages and brought Britain to the fore in professional cycling; all in a time scale that other teams and countries could never dreamed of doing!

Now we can look forward to generations of talent flying the flag for us. Bradley Wiggins, David Millar and Mark Cavendish are the current big names but the likes of Froome, Swift, Thomas, Dowsett will all continue to develop and provide the stars of the future.
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In other news, Phillipe Gilbert showed he was human in the second Canadian world tour classic around Montreal as a late breakaway unexpectedly succeded. Gilbert still managed to sprint to 3rd but that by his standards is a big loss. While the Belgian, who regained his place at the top of the world tour rankings the other day with his win in Quebec, had to settle for third it was Movistar's Rui Costa who took his opportunity to sprint to victory ahead of Pierrick Fedrigo of Francaise De Jeux. The question still looms over whether Gilbert thinks he could do anything in the world championships in Copenhagen later this month or if he'd rather concentrate on the final classics of the season.

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The Tour of Britain started today with a sprint stage that was a formality with Mark Cavendish easily winning and taking the first leaders jersey. Such was HTC's dominance that leadout man Mark Renshaw held on for 2nd place. Teams had to work together and fight to chase down the breakaway which, with only 6 riders per team, was more difficult than usual. Team Sky, Rabobank and HTC-Highroad all harboured interests in the final sprint though so together they reeled in the two breakaway riders in time but not before all the KOM and intermediate sprint points which go to Russel Hampton of Sigma Sport-Specialized and Pieter Ghyllebert of An Post-Sean Kelly respectively. Lets hope some of the smaller British teams can continue to show their faces during the week to come.

Thanks for reading!