Wiggins to support Froome at the Tour de France

Bradley Wiggins is on Team Sky's long list to race the Tour de France and the chances that he will be on the start line on July 5 in Leeds continue to grow. According to Team Sky's director Kurt-Asle Arvesen, if Wiggins is selected, he will be working for defending champion Chris Froome.

"Bradley is definitely back in good form," Arvesen told Cyclingnews. "Most of the guys on our team want to be apart of the Tour team. Bradley, won it two years ago, it starts in the UK this year, of course it will be a good thing for us to have him there. Right now, our Tour de France longlist is about 14 or 15 guys."

If Wiggins does race the Tour, it will be in a worker's role for his teammate and defending champion Chris Froome. The Kenyan-born British cyclist dominated the mountain stages during last year's Tour and won the race by 4:20 minutes ahead of runner-up Nairo Quintana from Movistar and 5:04 minutes ahead of third placed Joaquím Rodríguez from Katusha.

"He will be working for Froome in GC," Arvesen confirmed. "The way Froome rode last year, he's definitely it — it's Froome for the Tour. Bradley will be there to support Froome, if he wants to go, if he's selected and if he's in good form."

Wiggins finished ninth at Paris-Roubaix and is currently leading the Tour of California after four stages. Although he is showing strong early-season form, Arvesen believes he is not yet at his best.

"He's not in Tour-form yet," Arvesen said. "If you look back at the 2012 season, when he won the Tour, he had already won Romandie and Dauphiné."

Wiggins is a favourite to win the Tour of California in Thousand Oaks on Sunday. He won the stage two time trial in Folsom and is leading the overall classification by 28 seconds ahead of Garmin-Sharp's Rohan Dennis and 1:09 minutes to Tiago Machado (NetApp-Endura) with four stages to go.

 

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

Join now for unlimited access

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

Kirsten Frattini
Deputy Editor

Kirsten Frattini is the Deputy Editor of Cyclingnews, overseeing the global racing content plan.

Kirsten has a background in Kinesiology and Health Science. She has been involved in cycling from the community and grassroots level to professional cycling's biggest races, reporting on the WorldTour, Spring Classics, Tours de France, World Championships and Olympic Games.

She began her sports journalism career with Cyclingnews as a North American Correspondent in 2006. In 2018, Kirsten became Women's Editor – overseeing the content strategy, race coverage and growth of women's professional cycling – before becoming Deputy Editor in 2023.