Yates pleased with Team Sky performance in World Tour event
Bradley Wiggins became the third Briton to land a top three placing in Paris-Nice yesterday, ending the World Tour event 41 seconds behind Tony Martin (HTC Highroad) and just five seconds off the time of Andreas Klöden (Team RadioShack).
In doing so, he joined two of Britain’s most successful riders in notching up a podium place. Tom Simpson won the race in 1967, beating a field which included Jacques Anquetil and Eddy Merckx, while fifteen years ago Chris Boardman netted third overall behind Laurent Jalabert and Lance Armstrong.
Like Boardman, Wiggins’ high placing was due to a strong performance against the clock. The former beat Armstrong and Jalabert in a time trial from Juan les Pins to Nice; the latter was second, twenty seconds behind Martin, on Friday’s test in Aix en Provence.
Team Sky Procycling director Sean Yates said that Wiggins’ performance was due to a different approach to the season. The rider has said that he wanted to be going well early on, and he has achieved that aim.
“Bradley isn’t solely concentrating on the Tour de France this year, and races like this are the ones which he performs best at,” he explained.
“Too much pressure comes with putting all your eggs in one basket and we’re expecting him to spread his efforts in more races this year. He can be proud of his performance here and that will give him confidence for the races to come.”
Wiggins was an unexpected fourth overall in the 2009 Tour de France, but had a more modest showing last year. Although he won a stage in the Giro, he wasn’t at his best in France and so he has decided not to stake everything on one race.
The team too has taken the same approach, and has had a successful season thus far. It has clocked up five wins – Ben Swift’s two stages in the Santos Tour Down Under, stage victories by Greg Henderson and Stephen Cummings in Paris-Nice and the Volta ao Algarve, respectively, and Chris Sutton’s triumph in Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne – as well as nine second and nine third places.
Yates is feeling very upbeat coming out of the race. “The team was fantastic and rode magnificently from the off again today. For Bradley to get third place in a race like this takes a great effort, and the fact that we also ended up second in the team classification shows the strength in depth that we had here.”
He pointed out that of the 21 riders in Martin’s group at the end, four were from Sky Procycling. That bodes well for the events to come, including next weekend’s Milan-Sanremo.
“It’s been a fantastic eight days – we’ve come away with a stage win, a podium finish, and that’s a big improvement in comparison to where we were at last season,” said Yates. “Hopefully now, we can continue go in the right direction.”
The team also has riders in action in Tirreno-Adriatico. Two stages remain in that race.