bradley wiggins tour de france stage wins

Bradley Wiggins wins 2012 Tour de France as Cavendish takes final stage

• Sign up to our newsletter Newsletter

History has been made. Bradley Wiggins (Sky) won the 2012 Tour de France overall in Paris on Sunday, becoming the first British rider to take the victory in the most prestigious event in the cycling calendar. And team-mate Mark Cavendish took an unprecedented fourth consecutive win on the Champs Élysées to top off a remarkable Tour.

A chunk of Britain was transported to the iconic Champs Élysées, as Union-flag-waving fans turned out in force to celebrate what must rank as the country's greatest cycling triumph. And they were there to celebrate Britain's most accomplished all-round cyclist, who adds the yellow jersey to six Olympic medals, three of them gold.

Wiggins' Sky team-mate and fellow Brit Chris Froome finished in second place crowning what has been a dominant display by Team Sky over the past three weeks in France. Italian Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) finished third overall, six minutes and 19 seconds behind Wiggins. By his own admission, he was unable to compete with the Sky duo.

Defending champion Cadel Evans (BMC Racing) also suffered during the race, but hung on to a respectable seventh place overall.

Wiggins' Tour campaign has been faultless. After placing second behind Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack) in the opening prologue in Liege, Wiggins kept himself out of trouble in a crash-festooned first week. He then took charge of the overall classification after stage seven to La Planche des Belles Filles, and then took his first Tour stage win in the time trial two days later.

Wiggins' grip on the yellow jersey tightened in the Alps and Pyrenees, where the combined effort of Froome and Wiggins dispensed their rivals with an air of cool calm.

Any doubt of which of the two talented Britons should be leading Sky was dispelled on Saturday, when Wiggins obliterated the field in the final time trial, winning by well over a minute over Froome, who himself had put in a stellar ride to place well ahead of Luis Leon Sanchez (Rabobank).

Get The Leadout Newsletter

The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!

Final stage action

The day started in Rambouillet with the traditional final day procession featuring photo opportunities for the press and a tangible sense of relief from the remaining 153 riders in the race that they'd made it to Paris.

As soon as the riders hit the cobbles of the Champs Élysées the pace upped. With a flurry of attacks led by Jens Voigt (RadioShack-Nissan). The German was eventually joined by ten other riders and they quickly opened up a gap of 30 seconds and sustained the advantage until the final 10 kilometres when only Voigt, Rui Costa (Movistar) and Sebastien Minard (Ag2r) remained.

Behind, a combination of Sky and Liquigas-Cannondale riders led the bunch to try and bring it all back together for a bunch sprint for Mark Cavendish and Peter Sagan respectively.

The escape were caught in the final few kilometres as Wiggins hit the front of the bunch to enormous cheers from the crowd. Wiggins blistering pace set up the Sky train to deliver Cavendish to his third stage win of the 2012 race, and his fourth consecutive victory on the Tour's final stage.

It was a very fitting end to a very British Tour, where the Brits won seven stages - a third of the total.

Green jersey sensation Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) finished in second place, with Australian Matt Goss (Orica-GreenEdge) in third.

A year of firsts

As well as this being Britain's first Tour win in the race's 99 editions, there are a number of other records set this year. Wiggins' win aside, Froome's second place is the first time that a Briton has stood on the second step of the podium at the Tour.

It's the first time that four different British riders - Wiggins, Froome, Cavendish and Millar - have won stages in the same edition of the race.

Wiggins sets a new British record for the most amount of days spent in the yellow jersey - 13. Incidentally, Britain becomes the 13th nation to provide a Tour de France winner.

Wiggins is also the first Olympic gold medallist to win the Tour overall. And now he goes into the London 2012 Games as outright favourite to win gold in the time trial event.

On stage 18, Cavendish equalled sprinter Andre Darrigade's stage win record set between 1953 and 1964 for a sprinter when he claimed his 22nd stage victory. Cavendish's 23rd stage win in Paris means he is now the Tour's most successful sprinter of all time. The outright record for most stage wins is held by Eddy Merckx, with 34 victories.

It was also a full set of firsts for the other classifications: Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) took three stages and earned the green jersey in his debut Tour. Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) gave the home nation plenty to cheer about once again with two stage wins and the King of the Mountains title. American Tejay Van Garderen (BMC Racing) marked himself out as a future Grand Tour contender with solid rides in the mountains and time trials to win the youth classification.

RadioShack-Nissan won the team classification, some consolation for what has been a torrid Tour for the team that hit a low with the departure of Frank Schleck after he tested positive for a banned diuretic during the race.

As well as a Tour of firsts, it's a Tour of lasts - for George Hincapie (BMC Racing), Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) and Jens Voigt (RadioShack-Nissan). All three veteran professionals have now completed their final Tour. In the case of Hincapie, he sets a new record of 17 participations and equalled Joop Zoetemelk's record of 16 Tour finishes.

Results Tour de France 2012, stage 20: Rambouillet to Paris, Champs-Élysées, 120km

1. Mark Cavendish (GBr) Sky in 3-08-07

2. Peter Sagan (Svk) Liquigas-Cannondale

3. Matt Goss (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge

4. Juan Jose Haedo (Arg) Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank

5. Kris Boeckmans (Bel) Vacansoleil-DCM

6. Greg Henderson (NZl) Lotto-Belisol

7. Borut Bozic (Slo) Astana

8. Andre Greipel (Ger) Lotto-Belisol

9. Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Sky

10. Jimmy Engoulvent (Fra) Saur-Sojasun all same time

54. Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Sky at 9 secs

Final overall classification

1. Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Sky in 87-34-47

2. Chris Froome (GBr) Sky at 3-21

3. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale at 6-19

4. Jurgen Van den Broeck (Bel) Lotto-Belisol at 10-15

5. Tejay Van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing at 11-04

6. Haimar Zubeldia (Spa) Radioshack-Nissan at 15-41

7. Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing at 15-49

8. Pierre Rolland (Fra) Europcar at 16-26

9. Janez Brajkovic (Slo) Astana at 16-33

10. Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ-BigMat at 17-17

12. Nicolas Roche (Irl) Ag2r-La Mondiale at 19-33

35. Daniel Martin (Irl) Garmin-Sharp at 1-25-23

95. Stephen Cummings (GBr) BMC Racing at 2-47-03

106. David Millar (GBr) Garmin-Sharp at 2-55-24

142. Mark Cavendish (GBr) Sky at 3-28-36

Points competitions (green jersey)

1. Peter Sagan (Svk) Liquigas-Cannondale

King of the Mountains (polka-dot jersey)

1. Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Europcar

Youth classification (white jersey)

1. Tejay Van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing

Team classification

1. RadioShack-Nissan

British invasion of Paris

Richie Porte leads the way on the Champs Élysées

Mark Cavendish wins in Paris

Bradley Wiggins wins overall

Jersey winners (l to r): Sagan, Wiggins, Voeckler and Van Garderen

Tour de France 2012: Latest news

Cavendish recognises advantage in missed Tour chances ahead of Olympics

Orica-GreenEdge still learning in debut Tour

Hoy says a Wiggins win would be greatest ever British sporting achievement

Cavendish adds to impressive Tour de France for Sky

Schleck's Tour B sample also positive for banned substance

Sky's quick exit strategy from the Tour

Wiggins and Froome explain Tour stage 17 final climb debate

Liquigas hopes Tour success could help find sponsor

Froome: Nibali's attacks weren't going anywhere

Wiggins' Tour de France training

Voigt tries to carry on as RadioShack's future seems in doubt

Tour de France 2012: Teams, riders, start list

Tour 2012: Who will win?

Tour de France 2012 start list and withdrawals

Tour de France 2012 team list

Tour de France 2012: Stage reports Stage 19: Wiggins wins time trial to claim Tour de France Stage 18: Cavendish wins Tour stage 18 with irresistible sprint Stage 17: Wiggins step closer to Paris as Valverde wins stage Stage 16: Voeckler the Pyrenean king as he wins in Bagneres de Luchon Stage 15: Fedrigo wins, day off for peloton Stage 14: Sanchez solos to Foix victory to save Rabobank's Tour Stage 13: Greipel survives climb and crosswinds to win third Tour stage Stage 12: Millar wins Tour stage nine years from his last Stage 11: Wiggins strengthens Tour lead as Evans slips back Stage 10: Voeckler wins and saves his Tour Stage nine: Wiggins destroys opposition in Besancon TT Stage eight: Pinot solos to Tour win as Wiggins fights off attacks Stage seven: Wiggins takes yellow as Froome wins stage Stage six: Sagan wins third Tour stage Stage five: Greipel wins again as Cavendish fades Stage four: Greipel wins stage after Cavendish crashes Stage three: Sagan runs away with it in Boulogne Stage two: Cavendish takes 21st Tour stage victory Stage one: Sagan wins at first attempt Prologue: Cancellara wins, Wiggins second

Tour de France 2012: Comment, analysis, blogs

Analysis: What we learned at La Planche des Belles Filles

Analysis: How much time could Wiggins gain in Tour's time trials

CW's Tour de France podcasts

Blog: Tour presentation - chasing dreams and autographs

Comment: Cavendish the climber

Tour de France 2012: Photo galleries

Stage 19 by Graham Watson

Stage 18 by Graham Watson

Stage 17 by Graham Watson

Stage 16 by Graham Watson

Stage 15 by Graham Watson

Stage 14 by Graham Watson

Stage 13 by Graham Watson

Stage 12 by Graham Watson

Stage 11 by Graham Watson

Stage 10 by Graham Watson

Stage nine by Graham Watson

Stage eight by Graham Watson

Stage seven by Graham Watson

Stage six by Graham Watson

Stage five by Graham Watson

Stage four by Graham Watson

Stage three by Graham Watson

Stage two by Andy Jones

Stage two by Graham Watson

Stage one by Graham Watson

Prologue photo gallery by Andy Jones

Prologue photo gallery by Roo Rowler

Prologue photo gallery by Graham Watson

Tour de France 2012: Team presentation

Sky and Rabobank Tour de France recce

Tour de France 2012: Live text coverage

Stage 18 live coverage

Stage 17 live coverage

Stage 16 live coverage

Stage 12 live coverage

Stage 11 live coverage

Stage 10 live coverage

Stage nine live coverage

Stage six live coverage

Stage five live coverage

Stage four live coverage

Stage three live coverage

Cycling Weekly's live text coverage schedule

Tour de France 2012: TV schedule ITV4 live schedule British Eurosport live schedule

Tour de France 2012: Related links

Brits in the Tours: From Robinson to Cavendish

Brief history of the Tour de France

Tour de France 2011: Cycling Weekly's coverage index

1989: The Greatest Tour de France ever

Thank you for reading 20 articles this month* Join now for unlimited access

Enjoy your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1

*Read 5 free articles per month without a subscription

Join now for unlimited access

Try first month for just £1 / $1 / €1

Nigel Wynn worked as associate editor on CyclingWeekly.com, he worked almost single-handedly on the Cycling Weekly website in its early days. His passion for cycling, his writing and his creativity, as well as his hard work and dedication, were the original driving force behind the website’s success. Without him, CyclingWeekly.com would certainly not exist on the size and scale that it enjoys today. Nigel sadly passed away , following a brave battle with a cancer-related illness, in 2018. He was a highly valued colleague, and more importantly, an exceptional person to work with - his presence is sorely missed. 

In his semi-retirement, 73-year-old Roy Lopez is embracing cycling with newfound dedication, taking home trophies and defying age barriers with each pedal stroke

By Anne-Marije Rook Published 5 June 24

World champion takes first victory since he was involved in Itzulia horror crash

By Adam Becket Published 5 June 24

Useful links

• Tour de France
• Giro d'Italia
• Vuelta a España

Buyer's Guides

• Best road bikes
• Best gravel bikes
• Best smart turbo trainers
• Best cycling computers
• Editor's Choice
• Bike Reviews
• Component Reviews
• Clothing Reviews
• Contact Future's experts
• Terms and conditions
• Privacy policy
• Cookies policy
• Advertise with us

Cycling Weekly is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site . © Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA. All rights reserved. England and Wales company registration number 2008885.

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

Tour de France 2012: Bradley Wiggins joins the pantheon of greats

There were more than a few people, myself included, who privately thought Dave Brailsford, Team Sky's director, may have been a bit rash in 2009 when he set a target of delivering a British winner of the Tour de France within five years. Maybe by 2020, I thought. Another part of me hardly expected to see a UK cyclist on the top step of the podium on the Champs Elysées in my lifetime.

Brailsford's ambition was, as the Tour classifies its highest climbs, hors catégorie . The achievement of the Londoner Bradley Wiggins in winning this 99th edition of the race, founded in 1903, is more than merely historic; it is monumental. A number of Britons have worn the leader's yellow jersey for a day or a handful of stages: Sean Yates, Chris Boardman, David Millar and Tommy Simpson. But none came close to winning the blue riband event of world cycling; none closer, at any rate, than Bradley Wiggins's own fourth place in 2009.

By winning outright the 2012 Tour de France, Wiggins joins a pantheon of greats. For anyone as steeped as he is in the history of cycle racing and the Tour, to be bracketed in the same league as riders of the past such as Louison Bobet, Fausto Coppi, Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx and Bernard Hinault is a lifetime achievement in itself. In its more than 100-year history, the Tour has belonged almost exclusively to the countries of continental Europe; Lance Armstrong's seven straight wins (if they stand, after Usada's doping charges are heard) were an aberration.

For a Briton to win the Tour is as seismic, in its way, as it was for the first American to do so, in 1986. Like the US, Britain has been until now an outsider in the "world" of professional cycling – and Bradley Wiggins is our Greg LeMond.

He may lack the chutzpah, charisma and craziness of LeMond, but in his bloody-minded dedication and grit, Wiggins has shown himself a truly British champion. Having raised expectations in 2009, a combination of bad luck and disappointing performances relegated him to 24th place in 2010; in 2011, he crashed out with a broken collarbone. His victory in 2012 is the final realisation of great potential transformed by an unimaginable amount of hard work – not just his own training regime, but the collective effort of his team-mates (most notably, second-placed Chris Froome) and the ultra-rigorous, appliance-of-science approach of Brailsford's Team Sky.

A large part of the story is the physical and psychological transformation of Wiggins himself. There was never any doubting the raw talent of the self-styled mod from off the Edgware Road, but he had formerly seemed a Tour contender only for solo stages raced against the clock – the individual time trial and prologue. Wiggins Mk1 was a track specialist, a pursuiter who had cornered the 4km time trial event in the velodrome and won a fistful of Olympic medals in 2000, 2004 and 2008. On the road, his type – a lanky physique with long levers and a big engine, capable of sustained high aerobic output – is known as a rouleur .

Rouleurs can win single stages or one-day races by escaping and outrunning the pack. But a Tour winner has to be the perfect all-rounder: able to hang with the specialist climbers at 2,000m over the Col du Tourmalet, yet powerful enough to survive the cobbles of the French-Belgian borders and crosswinds of Les Landes. The rouleur is equipped for the former, but in the Alps and Pyrenees, where the Tour is decided, gravity is against him.

The trick of creating Wiggins 2.0 was to change the arithmetic: a rule of thumb says that a grand tour winner needs to be able to produce at least seven watts per kilo at peak aerobic output (to put that in perspective, a handy amateur racer might manage four watts/kg). For 2009, Wiggins shed 6kg (about a stone) off a frame where it was not obvious how such savings might be made. Maintaining "negative energy balance" is neither easy nor fun when your body is craving calories to compensate for the rigours of racing multiple back-to-back 200km-plus stages. If the Wiggins we see in press conferences now seems a little dour and phlegmatic, this was the price: he could no longer be the bloke who liked a few beers and would go on the lash for weeks after winning at the Olympics.

The leader of a team in the Tour de France has to be serious: a budget of millions is riding on his efforts, and he must show himself worthy of the sacrifices every one of his team-mates is expected to make. It was a telling vignette to see Mark Cavendish filling his world champion's rainbow jersey with water bottles from a Team Sky car to re-supply his team-mates in this year's race. Brad is answerable for that, and he knows it.

To some, Team Sky's ultimate domination of the 2012 Tour may have looked a little processional. That grossly underestimates Wiggins's and Sky's achievement in defending and extending his lead. The tactics are always the same, whoever you are, whatever the team, and in 2012 Wiggins and Sky were simply the best in world cycling's biggest event. Yet I also relished Wiggins's outburst against the "fucking wankers" among the Twitterati and press pack who had called into question the credibility of his performances. Wiggins's choice of Anglo-Saxon terms may have made Sky's press pack wince, but we needed to see that this coronation of a new champion was not a bloodless coup.

And Wiggins has a point. The 20 years between LeMond's last win and Wiggins's first were the dark era of EPO and blood-doping – low, dishonest decades that came close to wrecking the entire edifice of professional cycling and the Tour's prestige. We many burned fans are entitled to suspicion and scepticism; we have been lied to so often. But for this fan, at least, Bradley Wiggins's victory was all the more sweetly significant precisely because I believe in it. Chapeau Wiggo!

• Bradley Wiggins
• Tour de France 2012
• Tour de France
• Mark Cavendish

More on this story

Bradley wiggins wins tour as mark cavendish takes last stage.

Ed Miliband lobbies French president over Yorkshire's Tour de France bid

Tour de France 2012: stage 20 – as it happened

Tour de France 2012: Six reasons for Bradley Wiggins's victory

Bradley wiggins' tour triumph hailed at herne hill velodrome – video.

Tour de France 2012: Mark Cavendish wins fourth Champs Elysées sprint

Bradley Wiggins: A dream comes true – now it's got to be Games gold

Tour de France 2012: How one man's vision made Bradley Wiggins a star

Britons toast Bradley Wiggins win with champagne on the Champs-Élysées

Bradley Wiggins wins the Tour de France - in pictures

Most viewed.

• off.road.cc
• Dealclincher
• Fantasy Cycling

Support road.cc

Like this site? Help us to make it better.

• Sportive and endurance bikes
• Gravel and adventure bikes
• Urban and hybrid bikes
• Touring bikes
• Cyclocross bikes
• Electric bikes
• Folding bikes
• Fixed & singlespeed bikes
• Children's bikes
• Time trial bikes
• Accessories - misc
• Computer mounts
• Bike bags & cases
• Bottle cages
• Child seats
• Lights - front
• Lights - rear
• Lights - sets
• Pumps & CO2 inflators
• Puncture kits
• Reflectives
• Smart watches
• Stands and racks
• Arm & leg warmers
• Base layers
• Gloves - full finger
• Gloves - mitts
• Jerseys - casual
• Jerseys - long sleeve
• Jerseys - short sleeve
• Shorts & 3/4s
• Tights & longs
• Bar tape & grips
• Bottom brackets
• Brake & gear cables
• Brake & STI levers
• Brake pads & spares
• Cassettes & freewheels
• Chainsets & chainrings
• Derailleurs - front
• Derailleurs - rear
• Gear levers & shifters
• Handlebars & extensions
• Inner tubes
• Quick releases & skewers
• Energy & recovery bars
• Energy & recovery drinks
• Energy & recovery gels
• Heart rate monitors
• Hydration products
• Hydration systems
• Indoor trainers
• Power measurement
• Skincare & embrocation
• Training - misc
• Cleaning products
• Lubrication
• Tools - multitools
• Tools - Portable
• Tools - workshop
• Books, Maps & DVDs
• Camping and outdoor equipment
• Gifts & misc

The road to victory: How Team Sky propelled Bradley Wiggins to Tour de France victory

Bradley Wiggins has today become the first British cyclist to win the Tour de France in its 109-year history. The 32-year-old’s victory is the result of 12 months’ planning by Team Sky after he crashed out of the 2011 race with a broken collarbone. That plan still needed to be executed on the road, however, and Wiggins and his team mates did it near perfectly. We look at the key stages that took him to victory.

Prolouge Saturday 30 June Liège (6.4 kilometres)

Posting the second quickest time behind RadioShack-Nissan’s Fabian Cancellara, Wiggins gained vital time on the two men seen as his principal rivals for the overall win, 17 seconds on defending champion Cadel Evans of BMC Racing and 18 seconds on Liquigas Cannondale’s Vincenzo Nibali. Had Wiggins gone eight seconds quicker, he could have taken the maillot jaune and potentially worn it from start to finish. That would have meant an extra week of post-stage press conferences, however, a distraction he didn’t need during what proved to be a nervous opening week of the race.

Stage 1 Sunday 1 July Liège- Seraing (198km)

In terms of the final positions on GC, today was crucial not for anything that happened to Wiggins or his rivals from other teams, but for the puncture suffered by Chris Froome inside the closing final kilometres ahead of a tough final climb. If Froome had not lost the best part of two minutes to his team mate, the dynamics of the race would have been very different – with the biggest prize in cycling in his sights and a margin of mere seconds between them, would he have been able to resist attacking his fellow Team Sky rider when the opportunities presented themselves in the mountains?

Stage 6 Friday 6 July Epernay-Metz (207km)

The misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time cost Wiggins dear when a crash on an innocuous stretch of road saw him break his collarbone during on the first Friday of last year’s Tour. Today, he was safely near the front of the bunch when what several riders described as the worst crash they’d ever seen took out a sizeable chunk of the peloton 25 kilometres out. Wiggins had twice been held up in crashes earlier in this year’s race, but both happened inside the closing 3 kilometres, meaning no time could be lost. Giro d’Italia winner Ryder Hesjedal, seen as a potential challenger for the podium here, wasn’t so lucky – the crash ended his race.

Stage 7 Saturday 7 July Tomblaine-La Planche des Belles Filles (199km)

Today was always going to see the first big shake-up on GC with a tough final climb never before used in the Tour. The smart money was on an attacking climber to win, but Team Sky had done their homework and it paid off handsomely, Froome taking the stage and Wiggins the maillot jaune, only Evans, Nibali and Cofidis rider Rein Taaramae able to stay with them by the end. It was a phenomenal show of the team’s strength in depth in the mountains, and one that is bound to have had a psychological impact on Wiggins’ rivals, even if they wouldn’t admit it publicly.

Stage 9 Monday 9 July Arc-et-Senans-Besancon (41.5km ITT)

The race wasn’t quite at its halfway point, but if you had to pick one day when the 2012 Tour de France was won and lost, it’s this one. Wiggins and Froome simply blew the opposition apart, including four-time world time trial champion Fabian Cancellara. By the end of the day, Wiggins would lie nearly two minutes ahead of Evans on GC, while Froome would leapfrog Nibali into third place overall. The toughness of the course took many riders by surprise, but not Team Sky who’d ridden it earlier in the year.

Stage 11 Thursday 12 July Albertville-La Toussuire

A day of drama in the Alps as Nibali twice attacked Wiggins and Froome and failed to shake them off – the big talking point, indeed, was whether the latter had attacked his team mate in the maillot jaune, giving rise to a tetchy exchange of tweets between the two Team Sky riders’ partners. Meanwhile a below-par Evans got dropped and by the end of the stage it was an unprecedented British one-two on GC.

Stage 14 Sunday 15 July Limoux-Foix (191km)

Team Sky had prevented any attacks on the tough climb of the Mur de Péguère but 2011 winner Evans was in trouble again as he was stranded following a puncture on the summit. As it became evident that the route had become sabotaged with carpet tacks scattered on the road, Wiggins led his team mates in neutralising the main group. No movement at the top of the GC, but the gesture helped Wiggins seal the hearts and minds of the French press and public, already charmed by his off-the-wall humour and command of their language.

Stage 16 Wednesday 18 July Pau – Bagneres-de-Luchon (215km)

The first of two big stages in the Pyrenees that represented the last chance for anyone to get time back on the Team Sky pair at the top of the overall standings. With Tomas Voeckler on his way to the stage win, back in the GC group Nibali went for it on the Col d’Aspin and only two riders could go with him; unfortunately for the Sicilian, they were Wiggins and Froome. Evans again had a torrid day, losing more time as a result of a stomach upset that would plague him throughout the final week as his title slipped away.

Stage 17 Thursday 19 July Bagneres-de-Luchon-Peyragudes (143km)

While Alejandro Valverde of Movistar was heading to a solo stage win, Nibali’s Liquigas-Cannondale team took the initiative back in the maillot jaune group, Ivan Basso setting the Sicilian up to attack on the final climb. Again, Wiggins and Froome were able to respond, and this time they distanced their closest rival, the race leader overcome by emotion as he headed over the final climb knowing he was on his way to making history. Inside the final kilometres, Froome looked stronger, some arguing he showed disrespect to the maillot jaune as he looked back and gestured at Wiggins; other believed that Team Sky had issued orders preventing him from trying to go for the stage win. In finishing second and third on the stage, the pair were a step closer to a British one-two in Paris, however.

Stage 19 Saturday 21 July Bonneval-Chartres (53.5km)

By now, the question was less whether Bradley Wiggins would become the first British winner of the Tour de France, but by how much? The answer to that was 3 minutes 21 seconds as the maillot jaune completed the course quickest, 1 minute 16 seconds ahead of Froome who himself sealed a convincing second place overall, nearly 3 minutes ahead of Nibali. Wiggins and Froome, of course, would safely get through Sunday’s stage in Paris. It wouldn’t affect the overall, but there was still time for Team Sky to get their third stage win in three days, and their sixth of the race, as Cavendish took his fourth consecutive win on the Champs-Elysees.

Help us to fund our site

We’ve noticed you’re using an ad blocker. If you like road.cc, but you don’t like ads, please consider subscribing to the site to support us directly. As a subscriber you can read road.cc ad-free, from as little as £1.99. 

If you don’t want to subscribe, please turn your ad blocker off. The revenue from adverts helps to fund our site.

Help us to bring you the best cycling content

If you’ve enjoyed this article, then please consider subscribing to road.cc from as little as £1.99. Our mission is to bring you all the news that’s relevant to you as a cyclist, independent reviews, impartial buying advice and more. Your subscription will help us to do more.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

Add new comment

What's a Prolouge then? Isn't that something to do with the Winter Olympics?

• Log in or register to post comments

Opening paragraph: "That plan still needed to be executed on the road, however, and Wiggins and his team mates did it near perfectly."

Didn't mention them all by name, and you're right, perhaps we should have done, but the focus of the article was on where the time was won and lost between the leading men on GC.

If you've been following the stage by stage reports, you'll know we have acknowledged the role played by all members of Team Sky, sorry if you thought this one had a bit of tunnel vision.

Latest Comments

If your taxes are going towards its upkeep then you have the right to use it no matter what these elites say and there is nothing they can do about...

Careless driving. Didn't even amount to dangerous....

Please stop putting words in all caps. This isn't the Daily Mail.

Rosie Holt (Tory MP) has tweeted "It was today I learned that immigrants are CLOGGING UP THE ROADS #bbcdebate" Finally, it's not cyclists!

I don't have huge arms, but I don't have cyclist arms, so maybe ten to thirty seconds? I've never tried....

Apparently Ribble have sourced & sent a bunch of replacement bikes to them

This appears to be a reprint of a review I read some months ago. Wot, no fresh content?

...you shall have an extra like for that!

That Dekker is a bit of a character though. Thijs Zonneveld had some interesting things to say about him a while back.

Did you bother reading the comments below, hence my post.

Most Popular News

• Tour de France
• Giro d'Italia
• La Vuelta ciclista a España
• World Championships
• Amstel Gold Race
• Milano-Sanremo
• Tirreno-Adriatico
• Liège-Bastogne-Liège
• Il Lombardia
• La Flèche Wallonne
• Paris - Nice
• Paris-Roubaix
• Volta Ciclista a Catalunya
• Critérium du Dauphiné
• Tour des Flandres
• Gent-Wevelgem in Flanders Fields
• Clásica Ciclista San Sebastián
• INEOS Grenadiers
• Groupama - FDJ
• EF Education-EasyPost
• Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team
• BORA - hansgrohe
• Bahrain - Victorious
• Astana Qazaqstan Team
• Intermarché - Wanty
• Lidl - Trek
• Movistar Team
• Soudal - Quick Step
• Team dsm-firmenich PostNL
• Team Jayco AlUla
• Team Visma | Lease a Bike
• UAE Team Emirates
• Arkéa - B&B Hotels
• Alpecin-Deceuninck
• Grand tours
• Countdown to 3 billion pageviews
• Favorite500
• Profile Score
• Statistics by season
• World map of rider races
• Most starts by race
• Starts and results
• Injury history
• Contribute info
• Submit program
• Contribute sites / social media
• Embed rider results
• Top GC results
• Overview - Overview
• Statistics - Statistics
• Results - Results
• Calendar - Calendar
• More - More
• Specialties - Specialties

Bradley Wiggins

• Professional wins
• Type wins All Stages Classics Time trials GC
• Including stripped results (

Follow-up links

• Victory ranking
• Biggest, longest, ...
• By vertical meters
• Solo victories
• Top classic results
• Key career stats
• Podium statistics
• % of team points
• Current standings
• Top achievements tick-off
• Career points
• Most underestimated
• Points per race
• Most scored result
• GC time won/lost
• Classics vs GC
• Best PCS National results
• Never competed in
• Racedays per BIB
• Races per country
• KMs by nation
• KMs by race
• Race distance
• Attack kilometres
• Leader jerseys
• Results per parcours type
• Best stage results
• Last attacks
• LiveStats mentions
• Last recorded crashes
• Votes per nation
• All time teammates
• Teammate most raced with
• Most 1-day profile views
• Rider most raced with
• Hits per day
• Points per season part
• Rest periods
• KOM sprints won
• Still active teammates

Grand Tours

• Vuelta a España

Major Tours

• Volta a Catalunya
• Tour de Romandie
• Tour de Suisse
• Itzulia Basque Country
• Milano-SanRemo
• Ronde van Vlaanderen

Championships

• European championships

Top classics

• Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
• Strade Bianche
• Gent-Wevelgem
• Dwars door Vlaanderen
• Eschborn-Frankfurt
• San Sebastian
• Bretagne Classic
• GP Montréal

Popular riders

• Tadej Pogačar
• Wout van Aert
• Remco Evenepoel
• Jonas Vingegaard
• Mathieu van der Poel
• Mads Pedersen
• Primoz Roglic
• Demi Vollering
• Lotte Kopecky
• Katarzyna Niewiadoma
• PCS ranking
• UCI World Ranking
• Points per age
• Latest injuries
• Youngest riders
• Grand tour statistics
• Monument classics
• Latest transfers
• Favorite 500
• Points scales
• Profile scores
• Reset password
• Cookie consent

About ProCyclingStats

• Cookie policy
• Contributions
• Pageload 0.0167s

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

‘Job Almost Done,’ Wiggins Awaits Only Coronation After Stage Win

By Jon Brand

• July 21, 2012

CHARTRES, France — Bradley Wiggins did not need to wait until the end of this time trial to celebrate victory. By the first time check, it was clear that he would win the stage — and his first Tour de France title.

But Wiggins, the Team Sky captain, made sure he crossed the finish line in Chartres, with the iconic cathedral looming behind, before punching the air in celebration.

The Tour ends on Sunday night in Paris, but Saturday’s 33.2-mile individual race against the clock was effectively the last chance for rivals to recoup time on Wiggins, who will, barring illness or a crash, become the first Briton to win this race.

Instead, riders like Vincenzo Nibali, an Italian on Liquigas-Cannondale, were distanced further by a powerful ride that Wiggins, 32, had mentally mapped out months in advance.

“I rode this course after Paris-Nice in March and envisioned then that I would be riding for the yellow jersey,” he said. “It couldn’t have been more true than what I imagined back then; here we are in July, job almost done.”

When the riders reach the cobbled Champs-Élysées, Wiggins’s teammate and countryman Christopher Froome will be in second, 3 minutes 21 seconds back; Nibali will be third, 6:19 off the pace.

Nibali need not watch his back, though: the fourth-place Jurgen Van Den Broeck, a Belgian on Lotto-Belisol, trails him by nearly four minutes.

In recent years, the Tour has often been decided by a tense final time trial. In 2010, Alberto Contador held off Andy Schleck in an individual test that finished in Bordeaux, though he eventually yielded the title to Schleck after a positive doping test. Last year, Schleck lost the yellow jersey in Grenoble to Cadel Evans.

Both were the only lengthy time trials of their Tours, however; those races were considered more of a climbers’ test.

This year’s course featured three time trials totaling more than 60 miles, which seemed tailor made for Wiggins.

If Saturday’s stage seemed devoid of suspense, it was because of Wiggins’s performance in the first time trial of distance, a 25.8-mile test held July 9.

On a hilly course that finished in Besançon, near the France-Switzerland border, Wiggins opened up considerable time. His closest rival at the time, Evans of BMC Racing, lost nearly two minutes, a gap that widened in the mountains.

“I started as a kid in time trialing and racing at the track,” Wiggins said. “So to win the Tour like this at a discipline that I’m so good at is beautiful.”

On Saturday, there was little elevation change as the race passed through the agriculturally rich Eure-et-Loir department.

In intervals of three minutes, riders left the start in Bonneval one by one and rode past industrial windmills and wheat fields on the way to Chartres, less than 60 miles southwest of Paris.

During the previous individual test, Fabian Cancellara posted the fastest result before Wiggins snatched the stage. But Cancellara, who held the yellow jersey for eight days at the Tour’s outset, was not in Chartres. He pulled out of the race July 11 to be with his pregnant wife — and rest his legs in advance of the Olympic time trial in August.

Playing Cancellara’s role on Saturday was Luis León Sánchez of Rabobank, who finished the day in third. Sánchez was first knocked off the lead by Froome, who finished in second, before Wiggins came barreling through in the final miles to win the stage.

It was a release of emotion nearly a year in the making. After crashing out of the Tour last year, Wiggins watched the final week of the race from home, wondering what could have been.

“Watching Cadel in Grenoble win the Tour a year ago and seeing the sense of what he was going through and how happy he looked, that was my motivation,” he said. “I wanted to feel what he felt.”

Evans’s performance on Saturday was a far cry from that of one year ago, when he tore along the streets of Grenoble to capture his first Tour victory.

Evans, a 34-year-old Australian, was passed on the course by his 23-year-old teammate Tejay van Garderen of the United States. Van Garderen, however, played down any pretensions of taking over Evans’s role as BMC Racing’s team leader.

“Cadel has had a bit of sickness; he’s been dealing with a lot of stuff this Tour,” van Garderen said.

“I still think he has another Tour win in him, and if he’s going to do it next year, I want to be there with him.”

As the riders make their way along the 74.6-mile course from Rambouillet to Paris on Sunday, van Garderen will be celebrating along with Wiggins.

Van Garderen will finish this Tour as winner of the white jersey, given to the top-placed young rider.

But he will surely have his eye on Wiggins, who is about to realize a childhood dream.

“When you’re 12, what you want to do is win the Tour de France, but nobody thinks it’s really possible, though,” Wiggins said. “But here I am, 20 years on, about to do that.”

Tour de France: Unchained – Second series offers more emotions but also more crashes

The eight new episodes look back at the Vingegaard-Pogačar duel of the 2023 Tour

The second series of ‘Tour de France: Unchained’ will be released on June 11, and the Netflix documentary offers another intense, emotional and dramatic insider view of the biggest race in professional cycling.

Last year, we compared the slick editing and constant showing of crashes and suffering to eating too much Haribo on a hot day . The second series offers more of the same, with the eight 45-minute episodes packed with best moments of racing, the crashes, the heartache and joy that the Tour always produces.

Tadej Pogačar and his UAE Team Emirates teams struck a deal to be filmed alongside the eight official teams, and so this year’s series tells a more complete story of his battle with Vingegaard and how Pogačar lost out in the time trial and then cracked on stage 17 over the  Col de la Loze.

Mark Cavendish also features across several episodes that highlight the dangers of sprinting, including the moment when he crashed out on stage 8 after going close to victory on stage 7 in Bordeaux.

The tragic death of Gino Mäder at the Tour de Suisse is weaved into the narrative Tour de France Unchained, with a tearful interview with Pello Bilbao highlighting the fears and emotions in the peloton after the loss of the Swiss rider.

One of the most moving moments of series 2 captures the moment Ben O'Connor is told of Mäder’s death during a training ride. Julian Alaphilippe also reflects on the dangers of pro racing. "We are nothing on earth and even less on a bike. Just to evoke Gino gives me chills everywhere," he said.

Yet 'Tour de France: Unchained' also dramatizes numerous crashes in a jarring contradiction that could perhaps have been avoided. At the very least, the crashes could have been treated with more respect.

Get The Leadout Newsletter

The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!

The crashes and serious injuries of the 2024 season have confirmed that the riders’ pain and suffering should never be used to ‘sell’ the sport, even to a broader audience on Netflix.

Despite that, the documentary is addictive and entertaining to watch, whatever your level of understanding of the sport, showing moments that are rarely seen on television or video. 

The Netflix camera crews again had all-area access to the eight teams and captured rarely-seen moments on team buses and even intimate moments between directeur sportif and riders on the massage table.

Each of the eight episodes combines different storylines covering the AG2R Citroën, Alpecin-Deceuninck, EF Education-EasyPost, Groupama-FDJ, Ineos Grenadiers, Bora-Hansgrohe, Jumbo-Visma and Soudal-QuickStep teams.

Their race tactics are studied in detail, with race commentary and scripted comments and considerations from French commentator Steve Chainel and Ireland’s Orla Chennaoui of Eurosport. Interviews at home, often done by their partners, reveal a more human face of the leading riders.

"Some of the eight episodes look like a dive into a pack of mixed feelings. Almost like being on a psychiatrist's couch, it's about grief, fear, anger, betrayal and pride," Christophe Bérard suggested in the French newspaper Le Parisien in one of the early reviews.

Team managers Jonathan Vaughters, Patrick Lefevere, Marc Madiot and Richard Plugge also feature, as they fight with each other and try to guide their riders to victory. Madiot’s disdain for Plugge after he accuses his riders and staff of drinking beer is ‘peak Madiot,’ packed with venom and pride.

Jumbo-Visma directeur sportif Grischa Niermann and his many exclamations of ‘Fuck!” in the team car again star, as does Pogačar’s foul-mouthed acceptance that he was done and his Tour de France challenge over. Not surprisingly Tour de France Unchained is rated 13+. 

The official trailer included a question to Thibaut Pinot about Vingegaard’s crushing time trial performance but did not reveal his answer.

It turns out the Frenchman preferred to enjoy his final Tour.

“Phew… I don’t want to answer that question. I’m not interested in that,” Pinot said. 

Madiot was not so diplomatic.

“There’s always a moment when the truth comes out, so we’ll see,” he said.

Vingegaard has always insisted he races clean and spoke directly to the Netflix camera about the 2023 allegations. 

“There’s no reason to be speculating. The past (history of cycling) is the only reason to speculate,” Vingegaard said.

“I know I don’t take anything. I’m not doing anything that I'm not allowed to do. I’m clean and even when they test these samples in 100 years, they won't find anything.”

Eight carefully scripted episodes

The eight episodes are an excellent way to look back at the 2023 Tour de France and prepare for this year’s race.

Episode one sets up the series and the Vinggaard-Pogačar battle with interviews with both riders from their homes and training camps, recalling Pogačar’s return from his scaphoid fracture at Liege-Bastogne-Liege.

It also captures the riders during a minute’s silence to remember Gino Mäder in their pre-race meeting with race organisers ASO in Bilbao, to introduce the crash narrative and reveal riders’ fears but also their determination to win.

Richard Carapaz crashed on stage one and the episode focuses on his subsequent abandon and how it wrecked EF Education-Easypost’s ambitions at the 2023 Tour de France.   

Episode two recalls Ben O’Connor emotional and physical struggles in the early stages in the Basque Country, while fellow Perth native and natural rival Jai Hindley won stage 5 and pulled on the yellow jersey.

The first sprint battles, Jasper Philipsen’s dominance and the many crashes fill episode two.

Fabio Jakobsen’s Tour de Pologne crash is shown again, while his high-speed crash on stage 4 is dissected and analysed in all its gory detail. Jakobsen accuses Philipsen of sparking the crash but he says: “We're not here to make friends with other teams.”

Cavendish’s crash and abandon is covered in the same episode, but the series ends with him promising to return to the 2024 Tour. 

Stage 4 is simply titled ‘For Gino’ and tells how the Bahrain Victorious riders try to win a stage to honour his memory, with Bilbao taking stage 10. 

The struggles at Ineos Grenadiers fills episode five, as Tom Pidcock fails to fight for GC and Carlos Rodriguez steps up and confirms his Grand Tour potential, winning stage 14 just 24 hours after Michał Kwiatkowski won stage 13. 

The Vingegaard-Pogačar battle takes centre stage on episode six as the Dane dominates the time trial and then Pogačar cracks.

The episode covers the suspicions created by Vingegaard’s performance and reveals how team manager Richard Plugge accused Groupama-FDJ of drinking beers on the rest day as a dead cat distraction to take the media spotlight and pressure off Vingegaard.

Patrick Lefevere and his spats with Julian Alaphilippe about his salary and poor results fill episode seven. The French rider jokes that he is paid “a bit too much for Patrick….” but went on the attack on seven stages to try to win a stage. Kasper Asgreen eventually saves the team’s Tour de France.

Marc Madiot responds to Plugge’s beer accusations during episode eight, which also recalls Pinot’s ‘Last Dance’ solo attack on his home roads during stage 20. The Virage Pinot was packed with screaming fans but following a perfect Netflix script, Pinot did not win the stage.

Episode eight and the second series of Tour de France: Unchained ends in Paris with the Champs Elysees sprint, the final podium and Vingegaard’s second victory ahead of Pogačar.

In the final moments, Madiot raises a sarcastic glass of beer as Pinot ends his Tour de France career, emotional but happy that it is all over. 

It leaves us wishing for more. Fortunately, the start of the 2024 Tour de France is only a few weeks away. 

It's back! Netflix's Tour de France: Unchained documentary is set to return for season 2 on June 11 pic.twitter.com/pupvAYsiXB May 16, 2024

Thank you for reading 5 articles in the past 30 days*

Join now for unlimited access

Enjoy your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1

*Read any 5 articles for free in each 30-day period, this automatically resets

After your trial you will be billed £4.99 $7.99 €5.99 per month, cancel anytime. Or sign up for one year for just £49 $79 €59

Try your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1

Stephen is the most experienced member of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. He has been Head of News at Cyclingnews since 2022, before which he held the position of European editor since 2012 and previously worked for Reuters , Shift Active Media , and CyclingWeekly , among other publications.

Seven tech predictions for the Tour de France from the pits at the Critérium du Dauphiné

Four new bikes, two new wheelsets, fresh custom paint, tyre nerdery, and much more besides: Biggest ever tech gallery from the Critérium du Dauphiné

Critérium du Dauphiné stage 5 suspended after mass crash hits peloton

Most Popular