Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome will lead Sky's attack on the Grand Tours(Image credit: View over Abinger Hammer cricket ground as the peloton ride by fans in the Surrey countryside sitting in their local watering hole)
Chris Froome (Sky) is the new leader at the Tour of Oman.(Image credit: Stephen Farrand)
Bradley Wiggins (Sky)(Image credit: AFP Photo)
Chris Froome showed good early season form in Tour of Oman(Image credit: ASO)
2012 Tour de France champion Bradley Wiggins (Sky) rolls along in the peloton at the Tour of Oman.(Image credit: ASO)
Sky Procycling's team principal Dave Brailsford says results in 2013 have little to do with the achievements of 2012. The biggest triumph is undoubtedly the Tour de France in what was a historic moment for Great Britain and its winner Bradley Wiggins. This time around however, it will be Chris Froome who is slated as the number-one rider at the Tour and it's a decision made by management, not the riders.
"I don't have two egos [with Wiggins and Froome], they are two talents," Brailsford told Reuters.
"With them, you have to be honest, to tell them how it's going to work, you have to have a form of authority and treat everyone as a rider," he added.
The two proven grand tour leaders are currently competing at the Tour of Oman, where Froome took the race leader's jersey in yesterday's stage to Green Mountain. His former Tour leader Wiggins lays in 63rd-place, more than 10 minutes behind the lead of his teammate but the rider who also took Olympic gold in the time trial has his eyes on other goals this year, like winning the Giro d'Italia.
"We have to consider that last season is just part of the past. We are now focused on a new season, new objectives. We start again from scratch with the same motivation, the same energy," said Brailsford.
"Brad will ride the Giro and Chris focuses on the Tour. If everything goes well, Chris will be in good form on the Tour but we also hope that the five-week rest between the Giro and the Tour will help Brad start the Tour in great condition."
Brailsford explained that there was less pressure coming into the start of 2013 despite being the defending champions at a number of important races; Paris-Nice, Tour of Romandie and Critérium du Dauphiné.
Get The Leadout Newsletter
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
This year will see Wiggins make a number of program adjustments including skipping Paris-Nice in favour of Tirreno-Adriatico in what the team hopes will be the perfect lead up to his Giro d'Italia bid. Wiggins had already suggested he wanted to win something else after taking the Tour title in 2012 and Brailsford added the Briton is as motivated as ever to do so.
"We have different ambitions and we are not thinking about defending something. We won the Tour de France once, we want to do it twice and it might be in 2013, or in 2014 or 2015. We're not defending anything," noted Brailsford.
"I think that he [Wiggins} is still hungry. He is more mature. But he is 32 and he will not continue at this level for long so he has to make the most of the time he has left."
