Wrong!!
Lets take a look at Bradley Wiggins who has a long history of winning on the track.
Olympic Games
2000 Summer OlympicsBronze, Team Pursuit
2004 Summer Olympics
Gold, 4km Individual Pursuit
Silver, Team Pursuit
Bronze, Madison
2008 Summer Olympics
Gold, 4km Individual Pursuit
Gold, Team Pursuit
World Championships
1998 UCI U19 Track World Championships
Gold, 2km Individual Pursuit
2000 UCI Track World Championships
Silver, Team Pursuit
2001 UCI Track World Championships
Silver, Team Pursuit
2002 UCI Track World Championships
Bronze, Team Pursuit
2003 UCI Track World Championships
Gold, 4km Individual Pursuit
Silver, Team Pursuit
2007 UCI Track World Championships
Gold, 4km Individual Pursuit
Gold, Team Pursuit
2008 UCI Track Cycling World Championships
Gold, 4km Individual Pursuit
Gold, Team Pursuit (World Record Time)
Gold, Men's Madison
World records
4000m Team Pursuit, 3:55:202, (as part of Great British team), Beijing China, 2008
4000m Team Pursuit, 3:53:314, (as part of Great British team), Beijing China, 2008
Professional victories
2003
Stage 1 ITT, Tour de l'Avenir
Six Days of Ghent
2005
Stage 2 ITT, Circuit de Lorraine
Stage 8, Tour de l'Avenir
2007
Prologue, Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
Stage 1 ITT, Four Days of Dunkirk
Stage 4 ITT, Tour du Poitou-Charentes et de la Vienne
Stage 6 Combativity award, Tour de France
Duo Normand (with Michiel Elijzen)
2009
Stage 1 TTT, Tour of Qatar
Stage 3b ITT, Driedaagse De Panne-Koksijde
Beaumont Trophy
Not sure if that's enough to covince everyone that he has a strong motor, world class I say. Big deal if the guy loses some weight and has a motor that doesn't make a podium finisher. (they said that about Lance as well) First off the guy lost 6kg's that's 13 lbs over the course of the year that is like taking away the weight of a Bike! That means that he went from a 6' 3'' 160lb guy to a 6'3'' 147lb guy and was able to retain that power. (Lets remember he was not a sprinter but a pursuiter big difference). Think about what that does to your power to weight ratio. The rule for climbing prowess: You should weigh (in pounds) no more than twice your height in inches. So at 6 feet 3 (75 inches) you'd need to weigh 150 pounds rather than 160 pounds. So at 147 I think he can stay with the best climbers maybe not the attacks of Alberto Cantador but he can hang with the best of them as was evident today. Sure Doc you have it all figured out give me an example besides Lance. Ok, Five-time Tour winner Miguel Indurain is 6-foot-2 and weighed 190 pounds when he began racing. Lots of miles reduced him to 175. At that weight, his huge power output enabled him to ride with the specialist climbers in the mountains even though he outweighed most of them by 30-40 pounds. And of course he was nearly unbeatable in flat time trials where weight doesn't matter much but power output does. It is commonly written that to win the Tour de France you need to be able to hold 5.9 to 6.0 watts per kg for 30 to 45 minutes at a time, 3 to 4 times over the course of a 5 to 6 hour day in the mountains. So for a podium spot if we are looking at numbers I would say 5 to 5.5 and I am sure Bradley is in that range.
Lastly the physcological aspects of sport are the always the X variable and this guys already knows how to get himself into that zone to win, mask pain, etc etc. If you listen to him in interviews or read his tweets you know this guy is mentally preparing. It is something that he has always done for the track but now its the tour. So what do I think? I think he could defiantly find himself on the podium but only time will tell and a few mountains.
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