Wiggins to miss Eneco Tour
Froome to replace Briton in Team Sky line-up
Team Sky's Bradley Wiggins has been forced to pull out of the Eneco Tour stage for family reasons.
The eight-day race was scheduled to be Wiggins's first race appearance since the Tour de France but a family bereavement means he will now miss the event which takes place in Holland and Belgium this week.
Chris Froome will replace Wiggins in the Team Sky line-up which features 2009 overall winner Edvald Boasson Hagen. Froome took part in the London Sky ride on Sunday, a family ride in the British capital, and will now join up with the team travelling to Holland for the team presentation on Monday and the opening 5.2km time trial in Steenwijk.
Team Sky’s line-up for the Eneco Tour is: Kurt-Asle Arvesen, Michael Barry, Edvald Boasson Hagen, Chris Froome, Mat Hayman, Greg Henderson, Chris Sutton and Geraint Thomas.
Team Sky will also be compete in France this week, at the four-day Tour du Limousin. Kjell Carlstrom, Dario Cioni, Russell Downing, Simon Gerrans, Thomas Löfkvist, Serge Pauwels and Morris Possoni have been selected for the race.
Downing has been ill in recent days but has promised to travel to France to start the race.
Wiggins's only major objective for the end of season is now the Tour of Britain between September 11-18. Before then he is expected to ride the British national time trial championships in Wales on September 5. He has already announced he will not compete in the World Championships in Australia or the Commonwealth Games in India.
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This week Team Sky announced the line-up for the Vuelta a España, promising to target stage victories rather than a good overall classification. The line-up is: John-Lee Augustyn, Kjell Carlstrom, Juan Antonio Flecha, Simon Gerrans, Peter Kennaugh, Thomas Löfkvist, Lars-Petter Nordhaug, Ian Stannard and Ben Swift.
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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.