After just missing out in yesterday’s Critérium du Dauphiné prologue, defending champion Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) was slightly reluctant to take over the race lead at the end of today’s first road stage. The British champion was part of the 86-strong peloton that finished four seconds behind stage winner Cadel Evans (BMC Racing) in Saint-Vallier but, with prologue winner Luke Durbridge (Orica-GreenEdge) stuck in a group 23 seconds further back, Wiggins took the yellow jersey.
While Team Sky is not afraid of taking control of the race, as it did in large sections today, but Wiggins himself would prefer to have some of the team’s own technical clothing at his disposal for the time trial on stage four.
“It’s funny how times change!” he joked at the stage finish. “Before I’d say, yes, I’m happy to take the yellow jersey. Now I can’t say I’m disappointed, but I’d like to ride the time trial on Thursday with my Sky skinsuit, so I’d prefer to lose a few seconds by then.”
Instead of his team issue adidas skinsuit - which contains many of the details that Team Sky pays so much attention to - if the former British champion were still in the race lead then he would have to wear a yellow le coq sportif made one, provided by the race organisation.
“What happened today is just a sign of how far we’ve come down,” he explained. “We took the responsibility of the race anyway because [Orica-]GreenEdge didn’t want to completely assume them. The end of the stage was a strange run-in really. There were a couple of crashes and three guys rode away in the downhill and stayed away.”
While Team Sky will doubtless want to keep the race under control over the next two days, with similarly aggressive profiles there will doubtless be plenty of opportunities for the breakaways. So long as its members are not deemed to be of any long-term danger, the British team might well allow one of them to make it to the finish.