Sir Bradley Wiggins and his new team get into gear for Tour de Yorkshire

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/apr/30/bradley-wiggins-tour-de-yorkshire

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In the main street of Melton Mowbray last Sunday a campervan could be seen parked up, emblazoned with the roundel logo which British fans now associate with Sir Bradley Wiggins and other sponsors of the newly formed Team Wiggins. The knight of the realm was elsewhere but the vehicle spelled out the fact that the 2012 Tour de France winner has returned to his home roads, beginning from Friday with the Tour de Yorkshire, the legacy event born of last year’s successful Tour de France start.

Wiggins’s farewell tour – tournée d’adieu in cycling slang – is set to be a drawn-out one, on a par with that of Jacques Anquetil, who rode his last Tour de France in 1965 and raced for the last time more than four years later. Wiggins bid adieu to Team Sky at Paris-Roubaix on 12 April and hopes to race the Rio Olympics next year as his final outing, with an hour-record attempt along the way on 7 June, and various British events for his eponymous team.

“This all came together really quickly and this all happened because I didn’t get selected for the Tour [de France] last year and I sat at home twiddling my thumbs and I thought: ‘I’ll have my own team next year, sod this,’” Wiggins said at the Yorkshire Tour presentation. “‘I’ll race in the UK and enjoy myself’ because I wasn’t enjoying it.”

Team Wiggins began racing at the end of March, but Yorkshire is its first outing with its founder in the jersey, a nostalgic bit of kit modelled on the classic red and blue colours used by Great Britain until lottery funding turned up in the late 1990s. It is a unique venture set up late last year, sponsored by most of the backers who support Sky: the TV company, the sportswear firm Rapha, Pinarello cycles, Jaguar cars.

There are two short-term objectives: one is to enable Wiggins to make the transition from racing with Team Sky to the shorter distance road- and track-work needed before Rio. The second is to enable him and his probable team-mates in the pursuit squad to race as a unit. This harks back to the original reason for Team Sky’s foundation, to enable British cyclists to prepare their Olympic objectives in a pro team that worked in concert with the national squad; Team Wiggins’s formation marks the end of that link.

“We’re not trying to win the Tour de France. That’s clear,” Wiggins said. “Our goals are on the track and this was team started out in order to facilitate that. We don’t have a huge budget. We’re never going to compete with the Skys of this world but I never wanted it to go to that level or be a Tour de France team. I’ve said a few times that I want it to be development team.”

Wiggins is expected to turn out for some of the Tour series city-centre events in May and June, and will make other road appearances depending on the needs of the pursuit squad run by the German Heike Salzwedel. The team’s directeur sportif, Simon Cope, said: “The objective is to provide the riders with a stable race programme up to the end of 2016. So we will see how the next couple of months go, and then see what Heiko’s needs are.”

“We have no real expectations of Brad for this weekend, I haven’t spoken to him yet to see what he wants to do,” added Cope. Team Wiggins’s lineup is formed largely of riders in contention for places in the team-pursuit squad in Rio, and its best performer this season has been the young Welshman Owain Doull, who turned down a deal with the French squad Europcar to remain close to the British Olympic team.

“He has some talent, he’s definitely going well, and has potential on both road and track. He’ll be looking for a good ride here and he’ll obviously be looking for a professional contract before long,” said Cope. Post 2016, the goal is for Team Wiggins to continue as a venture to support young British riders, most probably racing at UCI Continental level, in essence division three, because at a higher level – ProContinental, WorldTour – it is impossible for teams to support much of the UK calendar, so they need to be based in Europe. But that will depend on sponsors being drawn to the Wiggins brand.

Cope’s feeling is that two of the three stages of the Yorkshire Tour are too tough to offer much to his riders. “Looking at the parcours, it’s about survival. It’s pretty vicious. Stage one [Bridlington-Scarborough] is very technical in parts, with some horrible little climbs, stage two [Selby-York] will be OK unless it’s windy, but the last stage [Wakefield-Leeds] is horrendous. I can see a lot of riders getting off.”

As well as Wiggins – and the six other home teams including a youthful Great Britain squad – the Yorkshire Tour has drawn some strong European entrants. The form of the German sprinter Marcel Kittel will be closely scrutinised as Mark Cavendish’s successor as the fastest man in pro cycling makes his return to racing after a three-month hiatus through ill health. Another familiar name to Tour de France connoisseurs is that of Thomas Voeckler, who will find Sunday’s hilly leg to his liking, as will Great Britain’s Steve Cummings, who has been showing well for the MTN-Qhubeka team. And if Team Sky’s Ben Swift can hang on over Sunday’s hills, he will fancy his chances of wearing the blue-and-yellow leader’s jersey in Leeds.