{"id":3466,"date":"2013-12-30T04:29:53","date_gmt":"2013-12-30T04:29:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/crankpunk.com\/?p=3466"},"modified":"2013-12-30T04:29:53","modified_gmt":"2013-12-30T04:29:53","slug":"can-wiggins-win-paris-roubaix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/2013\/12\/30\/can-wiggins-win-paris-roubaix\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Wiggins win Paris-Roubaix?"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Cillian Kelly<\/em><\/p>\n

Milan San Remo: 2nd<\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n

Tour of Flanders: 7th<\/sup>
\nParis-Roubaix: 4th<\/sup>
\nLiege-Bastogne-Liege: 3rd<\/sup>
\nTour of Lombardy: 2nd<\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n

These are the best results in all five monument classics in the career of a particular cyclist. It’s an impressive collection of placings for any rider in any era. This rider, despite never making the podium there during his career, always wanted to win Paris-Roubaix.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI would have given anything to win Paris-Roubaix. I felt like I was good technically on the cobblestones, but I don’t think I ever had a peak day. I’ve always felt I’m a summer rider. I’ve always been a warm weather rider. The guys who excel in the early season either train all winter and are in their very best shape, or they’re Belgian or they’re Irish. Cold weather, rain, I’ve never felt good in it. I always wished there were more classics in August\u201d.<\/i><\/p>\n

But before we reveal the identity of our mystery classics rider, let’s consider another rider who has struggled of late in the cold and rain, Bradley Wiggins.<\/p>\n

Now that Chris Froome and Richie Porte have taken over the primary and ancillary stage racing duties at Team Sky, Wiggins,\u00a0<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>aged 33, is in the market for one more specialist niche to occupy before he calls time on his career.<\/p>\n

In recent weeks and months, Wiggins and his team manager Dave Brailsford have, apparently, been making noises about targeting Paris-Roubaix next year. The Belgian-born Brit has a habit of reinventing himself. He’s already shifted from track virtuoso, to time trial king, to Tour de France winner. Could he carve out one more niche as a classics contender?<\/p>\n

The following are Wiggins’ best results in all five monument classics:<\/p>\n

Milan San Remo: 44th<\/strong>
\nTour of Flanders: 50th<\/strong><\/p>\n

Paris-Roubaix: 25th
\nLiege-Bastogne-Liege: 74th
\nTour of Lombardy: DNF<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not great, but not terrible. Unlike every other Tour de France winner in the last quarter of a century, he has<\/i> actually ridden all of them.<\/p>\n

It is the 25th<\/sup> place in Paris-Roubaix coupled with his time trialling ability being roughly on a par with Fabian Cancellara’s that seems to be the foundation for next year’s plan to tackle the Queen of the Classics.<\/p>\n

This subject is broached in the February 2014 edition of Cycle Sport magazine. It is confirmed that Paris-Roubaix is ‘on the radar’ for Wiggins and Team Sky. There are also the thoughts of directeurs sportif from all of Wiggins’ previous teams on whether he stands a chance against the seasoned cobbled competitors like Cancellara and Tom Boonen.<\/p>\n

The responses vary from FDJ’s Marc Madiot, who says ‘yes… he can be a contender’, to Eric Boyer of Cofidis, who says ‘no, he can’t’, to more pragmatic answers from Jonathan Vaughters, Brian Holm and Roger Legeay who all think he could be good, but a win would be unlikely.<\/p>\n

Wiggins won’t be the last rider to try to combine the Tour de France and Paris-Roubaix on to a single palmar\u00e9s, but he most certainly isn’t the first either.<\/p>\n

\"thumbs<\/a>
thumbs up for Roubaix?<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fourteen riders can claim to have won both races during their career \u2013 Bernard Hinault, Eddy Merckx, Jan Janssen, Felice Gimondi, Louison Bobet, Fausto Coppi, Sylv\u00e9re Maes, Andr\u00e9 Leducq, Henri P\u00e9lissier, Francois Faber, Octave Lapize, Henri Cornet, Louis Trousellier and Maurice Garin.<\/p>\n

But it is becoming a rarer feat with the passing of time, as eight of those fourteen completed their double before World War II. The most recent rider to complete this unlikely career double was Hinault, having won the Tour in 1978 and 1979, he added Paris-Roubaix in 1981.<\/p>\n

Although Hinault hated Paris-Roubaix, it is a common misconception that he only rode this race once. He actually rode the Queen of the classics on five occassions, never finishing lower than 13th<\/sup>. When he finally won it in 1981, he owed much of his success to a 19 year-old Greg LeMond – well, that’s according to LeMond himself.<\/p>\n

The American was just beginning his first season as a professional cyclist. In an interview with Bill McGann, he said:<\/p>\n

\u201cIn April I felt actually quite good in Paris-Roubaix. I was really helping Hinault. He won his first and only Paris-Roubaix that year. I loved it. I did a big final attack that split the race up for Hinault and then I just bagged it after 230 kilometers.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n