Tension between Wiggins and Froome "no longer a story"
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Bradley Wiggins at sign-in(Image credit: Rob Lampard)
Bradley Wiggins gets low on the corners(Image credit: Rob Lampard)
Bradley Wiggins finds himself alone ahead of stage 4 of the Giro d'Italia(Image credit: Scott Mitchell)
Team Sky's Brad Wiggins and Geraint Thomas came to grief in the Arenberg forest.(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Team Sky manager Sir Dave Brailsford says that Bradley Wiggins will take part in Paris-Roubaix "as part of a Bradley strategy, not a Tour de France strategy" - meaning that the Hell of the North would be a goal in itself, rather than a way of practicing for the Tour de France's tough first week stage over the cobbles.
Brailsford recognised that since Sky began in 2010, they have failed to shine yet in the cobbled Classics, and Wiggins may be one to resolve what he called "a gaping hole in our palmares that we'd like to try and sort out."
"Paris-Roubaix is a race which Wiggins has always liked since he was a youngster, he feels he's got the physical attributes to do well there."
"I'd love to be up there," Wiggins said. "Once the fighting is done in the early sectors, it's about spending long periods of time on your own which I'm good at. The demands of the events are the same as what we've been doing climbing mountains, lots of sustained threshold work."
As for the Froome/Wiggins leadership issues that have surfaced on several occasions since the 2011 Vuelta, Brailsford said "it's no longer a story, that one has been wrung dry."
"Brad is in a good place, he's got his goals and he's working towards them. He's come to terms with his 2012 performances and he's now able to see his way forward."
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