2013 Pro-cycling season thread

i can't imagine what the world would look like having been one minute standing at a pinnacle of achievement that could have barely been imagined, with all the stress, effort and hardship endured to get there surrounding it, then within a year find yourself somehow written off in favour of the guy who for all intents and purposes has been the architect of a lot of stress and intrigue and made very public criticisms of you then be asked to be his bottle carrier.

Wiggo swallowed a lot of pride just to be there and has kept his own council for the most part, if he pulled out its because it was a bit of a fucking bad joke to begin with.

And no offence to Thomas, but why the hell was he road captain? If Cav couldn't keep his powder dry, and if they put all their eggs in the basket of trying to ride on the front for an over-confident Froome and it didn't work, it's kind of bullshit to point at Wiggo trying to preserve himself from skidding out in the rain and popping his collarbone again as a contribution to their failure.

You are mistaken. By dint of them having almost super-human they should also have super-human mental strength, sacrifice everything in search of approval from the Daily Mail regurgitating masses. You win a silver medal in the Worlds just after winning the Tour of Britain but he climbed off in the road race. Coward! Lazy cunt! Where's a bus when you need one? Lets chuck one of Britains greatest ever cyclist under it.

Of course if he had beaten Tony Martin in the ITT and got gold this wouldn't be being discussed. 'World's best TTer tired for road race....after giving everything and beating the worlds best Time triallers Sir Bradley Wiggins, multiple gold medal Olympian and TdF winner, was unable to give much more, after giving Britain so much already. Despite his best efforts, the rest of the British team couldn't match his heroic demolish of the world's best a few days before. The tired GB team, after delivering a second TdF winner in 2 years and being the top ranked trade team, toiled dogmatically but ultimately in vain, after such a long and successful season. A bridge too far? Perhaps, but after so much success, it is churlish indeed to condemn one poor performance in the midst of so much brilliance.'