He just is a less interesting character, and also not of British origin which might put some people off I guess, mainly though no sideburns, doesn’t like Paul Weller, doesn’t come out with witty banter like ‘now here are the raffles prizes’ when winning the Tour de France…
Wiggo was more of a “character” and happy to ham it up for the press. check YouTube for his Q&A’s they were quite entertaining.
Quote from Wiggo’s wife Cath, was something like: “There’s 2 sides to Bradley, the father and husband good guy and then the cyclist, whose a bit of knob sometimes” Rouleur from 2013 I think.
Kevin Pietersen & Jonathan Trott, both the same though. If he had Wiggins Swagger it would be different but it’s not him. He was rolling round here fairly unassuming (apart from the Jag escort) and was out having coffee and the like for a month over Christmas.
Just a quieter, less charismatic bloke – doesn’t make him a bad person. I think it’s more a case that Wiggins is unusual, rather than Froome, seems like most sports folks are pretty reserved, don’t let toomuch of themselves out when they’re speaking to the media. Or are just too politely raised to want to cause controversy!
Don’t get that Ioddrik, Wiggins wouldn’t have won without his help. OK, he may have made a point, but he still did the job and basically helped the lesser rider to victory – a hard thing for any sportsman to do…
I really like him, he comes across very humble and able to take the pee out of himself. He’s also fiercely driven to succeed, again something I like a lot.
The beef with Wiggo in 2012 was a raw racer wanting to race, perhaps a racer that was stronger than his team leader in truth.
However, the reason people don’t like him is he’s not as charismatic as Wiggo. he’s also not as flawed and the British like a lightly flawed character.
FAR more exciting to watch than an overpaid over-hyped Prima Donna who did nothing for 2 of the last 3 years other than beat a couple of espoirs in a second rate US race, and get beaten in Classics by his domestiques… 😈
Froome has been known to attack and race, both foreign concepts to the National Treasure, yesterday being such an example.
I really like him, he comes across very humble and able to take the pee out of himself.
seen the GCN video of him teaching Daniel Lloyd how to climb? “You need to stick your elbows out and stare at your stem”.
I think he’s just pretty difficult to warm to. And I think it’s just me (well the Mrs thinks so) but I don’t find him very sincere, I just wish he’d say what he actually thought.
FAR more exciting to watch than an overpaid over-hyped Prima Donna who did nothing for 2 of the last 3 years other than beat a couple of espoirs in a second rate US race, and get beaten in Classics by his domestiques…
I have to say that was a turning point for me. He can come across as too methodical, riding by numbers. Yesterday he looked to me like he really wanted it and didn’t give up even when he wasn’t going to win the stage. If he rides like that more often and works on his interview technique people will warm to him. Mind you, he might not give a damn what we think about him.
My problem with Froome is that he rides like an octopus falling out of a tree. Wiggins in TT mode is an object lesson in style and control. Froome on an uphill attack is devastating, but looks like a teenage on his first bike – pedaling away like mad and glancing down as if trying to work out how to get out of bottom gear. Very effective though, not really anyone in the world who can stay with him when he does that.
Froome turned up to ride.
Wiggins turned up to do chat shows.
Or at least that’s how it seems. Either of them could rip my legs off without breaking sweat.
Also I dislike the half Australian, Belgian born one’s fake Britishness. Austin Powers does it better.
If I was only talking about the 2012 Tour you’d have a point.
Oooh a time trial. Thrilling stuff, and well worth that salary.
And however you dress it up, the Tour of California is a UCI 2.HC race, entered by Sky due to the ownership structure within News Corp not the status of the race and he was a WT team leader paid millions of euros to not enter Grand Tours.
Fact is Froome is a totally different; far more attacking and exciting racer to watch, but the general public and wider media embraced Wiggins for his off-the-bike “mod” persona during the 2012 Summer of Cycling, where being British was important.
My problem with Froome is that he rides like an octopus falling out of a tree.
🙂
yesterday was entirely consistent with his riding in other races such as the Dauphine the last couple of years and more indicative of his natural style than the Diesel Sky Train they carried over from Wiggins’ 2012 success.
Like it or not Wiggo is a bit of a national treasure and his flaws only seem to make him more relatable to the general public.
Froome might be a more exciting and impulsive racer (relatively speaking), but he’s just another cyclist to the man in the street – and of course he was the second “Brit” to win the TdF.
The funny thing watching that is that you know that he’s desperately trying to do what he logically knows he has to do – eg hold his position and fight back – while suppressing the desire to apologise for being bumped 😆
My problem with Froome is that he rides like an octopus falling out of a tree.
this, he rides like a nodding dog, and I feel sorry for anyone that has to ride anywhere near him, must be a PITA getting an elbow in your ear every 30 seconds. That and the spinny cadence thing really really gets on my tits, I can watch for about a minute before shouting “for **** sake change up” at the telly
There was a great 1hr itv4 sport documentary on froome earlier this year.
Showed him in a totally different light to my opinion at that time.
Really warmed to him and his dedication to get to the top.
Would be happy if he won the tdf again this year..
I made no comment on the status of the race, simply your suggestion that the didn’t beat anybody decent.
Him not entering GTs is hardly his fault!
I suspect you’ll also find that his salary is less to do with his likely performance in GTs than the fact this thread exists (of course they wouldn’t pay him to do nothing, but then he hasn’t done nothing).
Yes I am a Wiggo fan, which is to a large extent actually nothing to do with his personality, but because I’m not a fair weather road cycling fan and have followed it at all levels for 25 years. I remember Wiggo coming through the system as a junior before he was even famous for winning Olympic medals. Froome doesn’t have that background. Those who comment on him being Belgian or Australian seem to miss that Wiggo is pretty much as British a cyclist as it comes – he showed that it’s possible to reach the summit as a British cyclist in the way Froome doesn’t.
just because he wasn’t on your radar doesn’t mean he hasn’t earned his place at the top!
from Wikiwoo
Froome turned professional in 2007, aged 22, with the South African team, Konica Minolta, withdrawing from university two years into his degree in economics.[23] He competed from April to September for the Union Cycliste Internationale’s World Cycling Centre (WCC) team based in Aigle, Switzerland, in the U23 Nations Cup.[24] In May he rode his first stage race, the Giro delle Regioni, winning stage five, riding for WCC.[23][25] In late-May he won stage six of the Tour of Japan, attacking from a breakaway in the 14 lap circuit in Shuzenji.[26] In June he competed at the “B” world championships in Cape Town, placing second to China’s Haijun Ma in the 26.8 km (16.7 mi)-long time trial.[27][28] In July he claimed a bronze medal in the road race at the All-Africa Games in Algiers, Algeria.[29] On 26 September, he placed 41st in the under-23 time trial at the world championships in Stuttgart, three minutes and 30 seconds behind the gold medalist, Lars Boom (Netherlands).[30]
He’s embedded the reason to ride hard IMO, happy to go up hills and along the flats hard. I’d like to see him do more One Day Classics, but in all honesty this won’t happen. So he’ll stick to multi day events where he can excel.
As far as elbows and stems, who really GAS? He rides hard to his strengths, not everyone likes riding in the big ring pulling tarmac up behind him.
Wiggo on the other hand was more a One Day Classics guy and yet still managed a TdF win due to the Sky blanket covering the team. Not taking anything away from Wiggo because I like him too, but feel he’s more a One Day’er.
<whoosh> well clearly every top cyclist previously competed at a lower level 🙄 The question is, could you have commented on what he did before 2011 without reference to Wiki?
Did you miss that I was commenting on coming through the British system (where Wiggo managed stuff like winning the world junior pursuit – no googling required)