Skip to content

Sir Bradley Wiggins' form still a mystery ahead of Paris-Roubaix

Lack of results leaves question marks over condition

Sir Bradley Wiggins of Great Britain and Team Sky rides during stage five of the Paris - Nice cycling race between Saint-Etien
Image: Sir Bradley Wiggins will return to action at E3 Harelbeke on Friday

We are now just two and a half weeks away from Paris-Roubaix and it is still no clearer whether or not Sir Bradley Wiggins is in any sort of shape to win it.

He has admittedly spent most of his season so far playing domestique to his Team Sky team-mates, which is very admirable, but there is no escaping the fact that he has not yet shown even the smallest glimpse of good form.

I was looking forward to seeing how he performed at E3 Harelbeke on Friday, which is an important build-up race to Paris-Roubaix, so I found it curious that he hasn’t been named in Team Sky’s line-up.

You can look at this under-the-radar approach to Paris-Roubaix in two ways.

On the one hand, it means Wiggins is very much an unknown to rival teams such as Etixx – Quick-Step. The Belgian squad will know everything they need to know about Ian Stannard after he mugged them at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, but they have no idea what Wiggins is capable of, which is a potentially potent weapon.

Ian Stannard in the 2015 Strade Bianche race
Image: Ian Stannard won Omloop Het Nieuwsblad in February

If he attacks in the last 15km of Paris-Roubaix, is that a serious attempt to win the race or is he just trying to set up Stannard or Geraint Thomas? Other teams won’t be 100 per cent sure.

If Wiggins was to put in a super ride at a race before Paris-Roubaix, Team Sky could lose that advantage and, simultaneously, it could put pressure on Wiggins. He will become a marked man. So I can definitely see the merit in keeping him out of the spotlight.

More from Stephen Roche

But on the other hand, Wiggins has to be careful not to drop down the pecking order in his own team because there is no denying that Stannard and Thomas are both in outstanding form.

Team Sky have shown on several occasions in the past that line-ups and leaders are chosen not on sentiment but on their chances of winning. Just look at Wiggins’ omission from last year’s Tour de France squad for evidence of that.

Geraint Thomas Milan-San Remo
Image: Geraint Thomas has been in outstanding form so far this season

Wiggins winning Paris-Roubaix in his final race for the team would be a fairytale, but Team Sky aren’t interested in fairytales. They are only bothered about results.

As a consequence, his form and condition will be analysed right up until the last 20km or 30km of Paris-Roubaix, when it could be that Stannard and/or Thomas are looking stronger and a better bet for victory. And that’s certainly not out of the question.

Stannard handsomely defeated two previous Paris-Roubaix winners, Niki Terpstra and Tom Boonen, at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, while Thomas has been in the form of his life all season and put in a magnificent ride at Milan-San Remo on Sunday in his latest outing.

If Wiggins is going to be in a better position to win Paris-Roubaix than those two, he is going to have to be going really well and may need to start proving he is capable of that in build-up races. Whatever happens, it's definitely going to be an interesting sub-plot of Paris-Roubaix.

Mark Cavendish finishes Stage 2 of the 2015 Tirreno-Adriatico after being held up by a crash
Image: Mark Cavendish was still feeling the effects of illness at Milan-San Remo

Another Briton with question marks hanging over him is Mark Cavendish, who is set to be in action at Gent-Wevelgem on Sunday.

It’s a race he has long wanted to win and he is definitely capable of doing so on top form, but like at Milan-San Remo last weekend, his health remains a worry following illness earlier this month.

He fell away on the last climb at Milan-San Remo and admitted afterwards that he didn’t have the condition he had before he became sick. Will he be back to top form for Sunday? I’m not confident.

It’s a shame because the illness and its after-effects are definitely now threatening to compromise his whole classics campaign. To win these races you have to be 100 per cent and he is clearly not there.

Around Sky