At the Criterium de Dauphine the cycling world learned so much. A previewish look at the Tour de France, the Dauphine highlights some of the top riders, albeit the full strength of some teams aren’t visible. The under-the-radar Garmin Sharp has been stacking wins, and the ride of Andrew Talansky is one of legend. He is a special rider with a humble and quiet strength on the bike. As I cheered for Andrew to hold the time gap, I began to focus more on Sky . . . as if the team doesn’t have enough attention. Yes, Chris Froome had a crash and that is taken into account, but I was seeing something beyond that. The elephant in the room was bumped around by Bob Roll during the race, but the fact of what Sky will do at the Tour is still so hush hush.
As Andrew Talansky crossed the line and watched the clock, the camera focused in on Chris Froome and his team coming into the last kilometer. If you have recorded the race, take a look at this again. The teammates of Froome continue to glance over their shoulder to their leader. Froome is obviously in debt and wincing, with a struggle to turn the crank, a very good climber may I remind you. The whole question of whether to bring Sir Bradley to the Tour should have been answered clearly. If you’ll remember, it was Froome who was glancing over his shoulder to a struggling Bradley Wiggins when Wiggins won the Tour. Who cares if they have issues. Bradley Wiggins should be on the team on July 5! I am not a Sky fan, per se, (okay, not at all), but the best should be at the Tour. Bradley Wiggins has earned the right to be there. Sky will look like the biggest idiots for not including him, if they choose not to do so. What does it matter to me if I am not a fan? I am a fan of cycling, first and foremost. For someone not to be included in the Tour because of petty differences is ridiculous. Is this a high school girls’ locker room or one of the biggest races on the planet?
Now that Chris Froome has had the “look” from his teammates, what will Sky do? They are always keep their team things close to the vest, but this should not be a hard decision. In the end, it’s a win-win for me. If Sky stays stubborn, then it just gives Garmin Sharp a better chance of pulling a trailer behind the team bus for more trophies and yellow jerseys. If Sky wakes up, then we get to see two phenomenal riders on the same team and how the drama plays out. Let’s just hope a bad slap fight doesn’t break out when Froome hears that Wiggins said something about him at a feed station.
Secondrate Cyclist 
A good friend of mine used to work for Sky (until he admitted to some of his actions back when he was racing) and speaks the world of Froome and Ritchie Porte–young, but good guys. Wiggins, on the other hand….
I agree that you should bring your best to the Tour to a certain extent. If one of your best is a d-bag and makes everyone miserable it has to affect performance at some point. Don’t you think?
I also meant to add that it is easy to be a Talansky fan. As you said, he seems humble, talented, and determined. I hope he has the stuffing for a three week tour (without Ryder there to look after him).
Yes, I do agree with bringing problems to the team, but Wiggins is also smart enough to know that it will basically end his career if he should harm Sky like that. He would really be riding to show off for other teams, because he will NOT be at Sky next year.
Yeah, I think that Talansky has the stuffing. Garmin Sharp is proving so much this year. I’m not saying he’ll win, but he should do well.
But don’t you think riding for his next contract and riding for the best interests of the team could come into conflict?
Na, the way I see it is like any other professional athlete. He will do his best to impress other teams to get a the biggest contract. If he rides hard, and Sky wins . . . great. If Sky loses, but he rode hard and looked well enough to get the attention of another team . . . great.
All that being said, it doesn’t look like it’ll happen anyway. He dropped out of the Swiss ride after crashing.
Oh, well . . . 🙂