And I have to say it, Wiggins was deemed to be in worse form than Porte ?
Partly but also if you listen to pre tour interviews a lot of it was to do with team morale and cohesion. You’ve got 9 guys racing together for 3 weeks. Any friction is amplified and the team needs to work together to win. Wiggo/Froome not getting on was going to be detrimental.
Also you don’t go to the Tour with a backup plan if you intend to win. You take a risk and put all your eggs in one basket. To put wiggins in as a backup at the expense of team performance is a bit like asking a sprinter to hold back and cover the brakes in case there is a crash – they’d just lose.
You also need to consider that Sky are now down to 7. The loss of the team leader will have knocked them and Porte wasn’t protected for the first 4.5 stages. Different job being a domestique compared to responding to attacks. I imagine he has trained to diesel engine his way up hills rather than follow attacks.