Will 2012 be the year of British Cycling?

The Cycle Seen | Friday 27 January 2012 by Richard Blayney

Both Cavendish and Wiggins have the opportunity to help bring unprecedented glory to British cycling

Twenty hundred and twelve has the potential to be a huge year for British Cycling. With both Bradley Wiggins and Christopher Froome proving last year they can podium in a grand tour and with the 2012 Tour de France route suited better than ever towards one or both of them competing for the GC, and with Mark Cavendish going for Green again, not to mention the Olympic road race, and a stack of track riders looking to aid to Britain’s gold haul, this could be the year Britain becomes the best cycling nation on earth. To have said that not even ten years ago would have brought sniggering from all angles and much ridicule.

When Team Sky’s team boss Dave Brailsford popped up and claimed that he hoped to have a Tour de France winner “within five years of setting up a team” the sniggering begun in earnst. But what nobody knew then that I can only assume Brailsford himself seen was that Brad Wiggins was more than just a man who went very fast for a distance of 1,500 meters around an oval strip of wood. Wiggins hadn’t offered much in his early Tour de France days except to be the next Chris Boardman for Britain in prolgues, but in 2009 that all changed when he blew away all expectations and finished fourth into Paris.

Wiggins didn’t ride for Sky then — there was no Team Sky — but Brailsford knew his man and immediately got him on board. Following Britain’s dominant display on the track at the Beijing Olympics — to a level that many didn’t see coming — in which Brailsford was the grand arcitect, Team Sky became his virtual British road team. Yes there are a handful of imports including the ubber talented Edvald Boisson Hagen, but there’s no doubt who this team is built around . . . as in what nation the team is built around?

For that matter, the Tour de France route would appear to be built around the team also. There are few super high peaks that would hinder Wiggins and Froome and aid Evans, less summit finishes than in recent years to the no doubt dissappointment of Contador and there is the return of the two long time-trials as well as the opening prologue to really stick a spanner into the works of the pure climbers such as the Schlecks.

As to who the team itself is built around, is generating much early season debate after the recruitment of Mark Cavendish. The fastest man in the world, Tour de France Green Jersey winner and recently crowned World Road Race Champion, Cavendish has become — along with Chris Hoy — a house hold name in Britain. He proved that by winning the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award this past December, something else I’d have sniggered and mocked you for ten years ago had you suggested that might one day happen, nevermind twice in four years. Because of the status of Cavendish and his ability to win any race that gets into the final kilometer with the bunch altogether, the question asked is whether Team Sky can deal with the ambitions of both Wiggins and Cavendish, and throw in Froome for good measure?

Will Brailsford be able to create a scenario whereby Sky can chase down breaks and set up Cavendish for sprints without wearing down the energies of Wiggins and Froom and their support men in the mountains, along the way? Can Cavendish survive on say a five man train of which he is one while leaving Wiggins, Froom and perhaps one other to conserve themselves? If Cavendish struggles to win races early and starts to look for more help will Brailsford stick to the game plan, or more interestingly, will Wiggins and Froome be willing to chip in? Cavendish will want the Green Jersey but make no mistake about it, it shouldn’t ever come before a shot at the Yellow.

And what of Froome and Wiggins if both are strong going through the mountains? Will a team leader be assigned or will they be allowed to race? What if the team leader cracks, shall the other press on? We’ve seen how Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador’s relationship went in such a scenario, though it must be pointed out Contador went on to win that Tour regardless.

But why not? Why can’t it work? Team Telekom in 1996 won both the sprint crown with Erik Zabel and the GC with Bjarne Riis, albeit as a team doped to the eyeballs. Does it take such a team to manage and handle both competitions? These days when we persume the sport to be as clean as it’s been since the days when a rider cheating was him hopping on a train before popping up close to the finish to cross the line and be declared the winner, I don’t see why it isn’t possible.

Cavendish has proven before he can win sprints without the train and while his team will be looked to as the team to claw back breaks meaning Cavendish might have to sacrifice a couple of stage wins, he can still do enough to take Green. Wiggins and Froome will no doubt sort it out on the higher mountains and will soon establish which is going strongest and if a designated number one is established one can certainly rely on the other as the kind of super domestique other teams could only dream of.

Which leads us onto the Olympic games just a week after the Tour ends. So long as the above mentioned protagonists can recover and recover fast, Cavendish will look to a group of Brit’s that probably won’t include Wiggins — who will be saving himself for the time trial — to help him to the road race gold, followed by the high expectations of the track team. It’s the track team that Britain is really pinning its hopes on to bring in a slew of medals and these games have been the vocal point of British cycling for over half a decade now. Everything is geared towards a Beijing style encore and any kind of slip up, let down, loss of form, or choke under pressure, doesn’t much bare thinking about.

Which leaves us with only the outlandish possibility that Cavendish wins a couple of stages, the Green Jersey and later the Olympic road race title; that Wiggins takes the Yellow and the Olympic time trial Gold; Froome wins a stage and takes the King of the Mountains; while Gold to a simular weight of that in Fort Knox is won by the British men and woman on the track. It’s at this point Britin should announce its withdrawl from the sport having reached the peak and with no desire to come back down again.