Читать книгу The Pain and the Glory: The Official Team Sky Diary of the Giro Campaign and Tour Victory - Chris Froome - Страница 17
ОглавлениеIt could have been a gentle few hours on the flat while the sprinters eyed up their chances on this shortest stage of the race, but the journey to Tarvisio was another sodden, wind-buffeted, nose-drippy battle along slippery asphalt. In tune with such contrasts, Mark Cavendish surged to his 100th professional stage win while his compatriot and old friend Bradley Wiggins was dropped by the peloton as it pressed forward relentlessly to catch five breakaways. The Team Sky leader finished a forlorn 3 minutes and 17 seconds back, dropping to 13th place – a full 5 minutes and 22 seconds adrift of the man hogging the maglia rosa, Vincenzo Nibali.
‘It’s a long time since I’ve seen Brad dropped on the flat,’ said Brailsford, after announcing that Rigoberto Urán, lying third overall, would take over the team leadership. ‘When he opened the curtains this morning, feeling sick, the last thing he wanted to see was the pouring rain. He showed a lot of courage to try to battle through the stage.’
Confirmation came that Wiggins was struggling physically. Earlier in the race he had told the media that he had caught a cold; he updated them when it turned into a chest infection. He was facing up to the fact that it had become very serious. ‘Christian Knees, Danny Pate and Bradley Wiggins all had upper respiratory tract infections with a productive cough,’ explained Richard Freeman. ‘A lot of people had it in the peloton and they’d cough on the floor, cough on the move. It was horrible. Another rider from another team had already been sent home. Bradley did his best. He didn’t want to give up, but the peloton is a damp, cold place to be. He was on antibiotics, but we weren’t getting on top of his infection.’
Others had watched him silently fight this predicament. ‘For the last few days you could see he was really suffering, but everybody was hoping for the best,’ said Ljungqvist.
‘I had the same chest infection, but I had a little bit of luck in that mine started on the rest day,’ confirmed Knees. ‘Also, in the mountains, my job is done early in the stage and I could go easier and rest until the finish line. But, in Bradley’s position as team leader and GC contender, he needed to push hard every day. He couldn’t hide. He was the Tour de France winner and Olympic champion. He couldn’t go easy even for a day to allow his body to recover. He did everything he could.’
‘It’s one bike race of many. Ultimately, someone had to make a decision. Health is more important than bike racing. That was my job, to take myself out of the bubble of the close-knit team and make an objective decision,’ said Freeman. ‘Bradley wasn’t for giving up. It was an immense disappointment when I ordered, recommended, demanded, asked Bradley to go home.’
