Bradley Wiggins by John Deering Read Free Book Online Page A

guess where this is leading to . . .
    Brad avoided today’s big smash, but Cav didn’t, and neither did his constant companion Bernie Eisel, who was naturally alongside him at the time. With numerous abrasions and a
damaged hand, the World Champion rolled over the line a few minutes after the stage winner, but within that small vignette was contained his most painful injury: André Greipel had won the
stage. The German was definitely the fastest in this sprint in the absence of his more garlanded former teammate and took the prize accordingly. This made Cavendish as livid as the rips in his
jersey and shorts, and the blood dripping down his battered body. The fact that Alessandro Petacchi had finished second just showed him that, in his mind, taking his 22nd Tour stage would have been
like removing sweets from the proverbial toddler.
    ‘We see this kind of thing time and time again,’ Sean Yates wearily told the Sky News reporters at the finish. ‘Nobody wants to see crashes for anybody and we were among the
victims again today.’
    Somebody else who, perhaps surprisingly, decided to have a public opinion on the accident was Mark Cavendish’s girlfriend. Peta Todd took to Twitter to declare imperiously, ‘This is
people’s lives. If you haven’t got the intention of making sure you have the team to look after the World Champ don’t just wing it. He is just a man.’
    The Team Sky hierarchy’s reaction to being lectured on tactics by a Page 3 glamour model sadly went unrecorded. Questioned about Todd’s comments, Dave Brailsford shrugged and said,
‘Sprinters crash, that’s just part and parcel of the job.’ He could have swapped ‘Cavendish crashes’ for ‘Sprinters crash’, but we knew what he meant.
    It is interesting to reflect on what Team Sky could have done differently to keep Cavendish out of such a crash when he was fighting for position in the run-in to a finish that he fancied. Or
perhaps Todd blames all his teams for all her boyfriend’s crashes over the years? What seemed more likely is that this was an opportunity to let off some steam about the more general issue:
that, for once, Mark Cavendish was not the star of the show. Team Sky were here to make Bradley Wiggins the first British winner of the Tour de France, not retain Mark Cavendish’s green
jersey of best sprinter. Surely Cavendish, and by extension his partner, must have known that when he signed for Team Sky?
    To follow the logic of Todd’s rather rambling tweet, Team Sky should either build their team around Cavendish or not include him in their nine selected riders. We can only imagine what her
reaction would have been if they had left him out of their Tour de France team. And Team Sky’s stated mission was to win the Tour de France with a British rider. Seriously, what did the
Cavendish camp think? And what did Cavendish think when he heard about the row? Did he close his eyes and inwardly groan? Did he feel a warm glow of pride at hearing his partner support him so
staunchly? Did he even discuss it with her beforehand, perhaps a subtle way of letting the world know how he felt without upsetting Team Sky’s precariously balanced apple cart?
    Those of us with an interest in modern sport know how Twitter can bring comradeship, enlightenment and understanding to its participants, or instant opprobrium crashing down on the heads of
those who use it unwisely. Goodness knows how many times Kevin Pietersen’s friends, family and teammates must have wanted to wrench his iPhone out of his hands and smash it into a million
pieces before he bashed out another self-destructive 140 characters.
    Several of Team Sky’s riders’ partners are regular tweeters. It would seem likely that many of their followers do so because of the identity of their husbands and boyfriends rather
than any personal prowess, though Todd’s modelling career has of course brought her plenty of fans of her own. This race still has more than two