Has Wiggins still got this Lollipop?

It is the second day of the Commonwealth Games and with 10 gold medals for England and Scotland in just the first day Lollipop and I are reflecting on an excellent start.

For athletes like Swimmer Ross Murdoch and Renicks sisters Kimberley and Louise yesterday was a dream come true but for Olympic champion Sir Bradley Wiggins it was a day to forget and reflect. Wiggins competed in just one event at the Glasgow Commonwealth games but his team had to settle for a silver medal in the men’s 4,000m team pursuit as Australia beat England in the final.

Wiggins said: “We were all on different levels,” as the team of him, Steven Burke, Ed Clancy and Andy Tennant finished more than five seconds adrift of their opponents.

He added: “We’ve had limited preparations for this and hopefully we will look back in two years’ time with gold medals around our necks thinking ‘this was the starting point in Glasgow.”

But Lollipop was not just surprised by the result. We expected Wiggins to take part in more events at the games like the individual pursuit and the time trial where he won Olympic gold in London 2012. However the 34-year-old chose to ride in just one competition and has now ruled out doing any grand tours. The 2012 Tour de France champ was not chosen for this year’s road event. Team Sky went for last year’s winner Chris Froome to lead who coincidently crashed out in the first week.

Although he has not ruled out all road events Wiggins said: “The road is quite cut-throat. The track feels more like a family and a closer-knit group of people.”

Our champ will now make track racing his priority as he targets gold at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

But has the senior gold medallist got what it takes to win in 2016?

Currently Wiggin’s only win of 2014 has been At the Tour of California, where he won the time trial on stage two by a margin of 40 seconds.

In the Tour de France Italy’s Vincenzo Nibali has all but wrapped up his overall victory after winning the summit finish at Hautacam.

In an event where Lollipop is used to seeing Brits triumph it’s disheartening to see Team Sky not in the running.

After being shunned by Team Sky Wiggin’s perception of road events have changed. In the past he has also admitted how he struggled with his rise to household-name status, and said there are times he wishes he had never won.

However after training in the velodrome our Champ has his eyes firmly set on 2016.

Wiggins said: “The last six or seven weeks since I’ve been back on the track have just been really refreshing and a good distraction from all of that Tour de France nonsense.”

His bitterness towards the event has been clearly noted by Lollipop but unfortunately so has his drop in performance. At 34 and after losing the Commonwealth Games final his game has taken a dip.

But there is still time. With Wiggins taking part in fewer events his concentration will not falter. But will his ageing legs?

Only Rio will tell Lollipop.

What’s next for Chris Froome Lollipop?

After becoming only the second British man to win the Tour de France that is what everyone is asking.

The 28-year-old took the title by more than four minutes ahead of Colombian Nairo Quintana and Joaquim Rodriguez of Spain.

After winning stage eight’s mountain-top finish at Ax 3 Domaines Froome took the race leader’s bold yellow jersey and kept it all the way to the finish in Paris.

If Lollipop were him she would never want to take it off. You would never want to forget the day your team succeeded in making two back to back British victors on the toughest cycling circuit.

It took Coach David Brailsford four years to make Team Sky unbeatable and now at the top of their sport it will be fascinating to see where they go now,

There is no London 2012 to set their bikes on. Other events like the Tour de Pologne and the Clasica San Sebastian take place this summer but for Froome his target will be the rainbow jersey on offer for September’s UCI world road race championships in Tuscany for which the champion will prepare in the mountains of Colorado.

“My focus has just been on the Tour up until now, but being world champ, that’s probably the second biggest thing after wearing the yellow jersey,” said Froome.

So it seems we will be seeing a lot more of this champ as he hopes to be riding in the Tour de France year after year.

For Froome this is only the beginning of something he’s worked so hard for. His fiancée Michelle Cound told BBC Sport: “People are saying Chris has come from nowhere but it has taken him more than 10 years to become an overnight success.”

Many will want to compare him to last year’s victor Sir Bradley Wiggins but Froome is younger, determined and ready to win again.

Our champ was born in Kenya to English parents in 1985. He has a Welsh grandmother and his family moved to Africa from Gloucestershire. As a skinny teenager he struggled to make it to the roads in Europe – He did not even visit the UK until he competed in the 2007 Tour of Britain but says he has “always felt British.”

He joined Team Sky in 2010 when the spotlight was clearly on Wiggins. Now three years on after winning Bronze in the Olympic Games Time Trial and now the 100^th Tour de France things have definitely changed.

He dedicated his incredible triumph to his mother Jane, who died of cancer in 2008.

Only Froome could truly say where he aims to go from here. And despite cycling going through a torrid period after Lance Armstrong admitted to doping in his seven Tour de France wins it’s amazing to see Team Sky hurtling to success with Lollipop and I racing to catch up.

Who was Lollipops 2012 SPOTY?

“Ladies and gentlemen the Sports Personality of the year is Bradley Wiggins,” announced BBC presenter Sue Barker. And it’s not really a surprise the Gold Olympic Medalist and Tour de France champion won – he was the bookies favorite.

But who was Lollipops favorite? Who was our favorite?

10,000 metres and 5,000 metres champion Mo Farah was inspirational to us this year and it was not just for his popular mobot celebration dance.

Born in Mogadishu, Somalia 1983 Farah moved to West London at just 8 years old and could barely speak a word of English.

But he has always had a passion for sport. Before the 2011 World Championship in Daegu where he won the silver medal in the 10,000 m and then the gold in the 5000 m Lollipop and I had rarely heard his name.

After a disappointing campaign in the 2008 Beijing Olympics where he was knocked out before the 5000 m final Farah fought back. He became the first British man to win a global title over either distance and made a major breakthrough on the world stage of athletics in 2011.

Then of course on the 4^th August 2012 or Super Saturday as many like to remember it as he was one of the three British athletes who took gold – running a time of 27:30.42 in the 10,000m.

Watching the adrenaline pumping highlights of that night on the BBC Sport Personality of the Year awards show bought back all those Goosebumps Lollipop and I felt just months ago.

We jumped for joy when he won and we jumped again when he spoke on stage tonight about his achievements as Double Olympic Champion

In 2011 he came third in the SPOTY awards. This year we hoped he would come first, which is what we got used to this summer.

But as winner Bradley Wiggins said: “What a year. To stand on this stage with the people next to me is incredible.”

Each of the 12 the sporting heroes and heroines who were nominated for the coveted award are incredible. They all could have been clear favorites as they made their mark in 2012.

So to Sir Chris Hoy, Andy Murray, Jessica Ennis Mo Farah, Katherine Grainger, Rory McIlroy, Nicola Adams Ben Ainslie, Sarah Storey, Ellie Simmonds and David Weir. Also to Martine Wright, Dave Brailsford, Lord Sebastian Coe, Sue and Jim Houghton, Usain Bolt and Josef Craig. Thank you for being our outstanding champions of 2012.

And the SPOTY goes to… Nicola Adams, Jessica Ennis, Katherine Grainger, Ellie Simmonds and Sarah Storey

It’s finally here Lollipop. The shortlist has been released and the countdown can finally begin for SPOTY- Sports Personality of the Year.

Amongst the contenders are our favorite champions: Jessica Ennis, Nicola Adams and Mo Farah. But who will take the crown from former SPOTY Mark Cavendish and be presented with the gold by Gary Lineker?

The Guardian have already piped Tour de France winner and Olympic Gold Time Trials champ Bradley Wiggins to take the gong. But can another British cyclist win for the second year in a row?

One thing is almost certain Lollipop. The winner will be a 2012 Olympian. Only one candidate World Number One golfer Roy McIlroy has not won gold at this year’s games.

In any other year the two-time major champion would have been the favorite but this Olympian year means the shortlist has been extended from 10-12 and McIlroy will be competing with athletes who bought goosebumps and tears to the British nation.

Five fantastic women are also in the running in comparison to last years all male list that was heavily criticized by the media.

Rower Katherine Grainger, Athlete Jessica Ennis, boxer Nicola Adams, Swimmer Ellie Simmonds and cyclist Sarah Storey could take home the prestigious award and finally end the air of sexism surrounding the BBC ceremony.

26-year-old Ennis has called for more attention on women in sports. When speaking to the Radio Times she said: “”It’s important that girls aren’t afraid of sports. I remember when I first started doing weight training. I didn’t want to be any good because I didn’t want to be all muscly.”

But will Ennis’ message and the inclusion of the five British women change the world of sport?

This Olympic year has changed how the SPOTY will be decided but will it change how women are perceived in the BBC Flagship celebration of sport.

If the one of the five female contenders win the gong it will be down to their achievements in London 2012. Next year with the Olympics all but forgotten will SPOTY return to the same panel and the same all male list that gained so much controversy?

Like the SPOTY ceremony Lollipop and I will just have to wait and see.

Philippe Gilbert

 

 

Belgium’s new victor proved he was tougher then the rest today after speeding thought the relentless circuit in Limburg to become World Road Race Champion.

The 30-year-old cyclist was four seconds ahead of Team Sky’s Edvald Boasson Hagen and Alejandro Valverde in a brutal 267km race that Britain’s Olympians, Mark Cavendish, Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome failed to finish.

For once Lollipop and I weren’t commenting on the dominant Brit cycling trio. Instead they were nowhere to be seen as Gilbert broke away over the summit of the Cauberg hill leaving Hagen and Valverde more concerned with each other.

Our champion even had time to celebrate  before crossing the line as he emulated fellow pro Eddy Merckx who also won a world championship in Holland in 1967.

But is he someone Lollipop and I should have had her eye on?

As only the second Belgian to win the Road Race,  Gilbert won five one-day Classics last year. He also took the opening 191.5 km stage of the 2011 Tour de France, winning by three seconds over Australian Cadel Evans – he became the first person to put on the yellow jersey as overall leader.

But 2012 has not proved as epic for BMC Racing team member. His Season goals for his new squad were to perform highly in the Spring Classics and help his team-mate Cadel Evans repeat his 2011 feat of winning the Tour de France.

None of these were achieved.

He also lost both of the Belgian National Championship titles he held, the Road Race and the Individual Time Trial.

In fact his form only returned in recent weeks at the Tour of Spain. So no wonder he was off Lollipop’s radar.

With such a wondrous win and holder of the Rainbow coloured jersey for the next 12 months Gilberts season is picking up pace. Whether he can hold on to this run will be questioned by pundits and upcoming champs like Tour of Britain winner Jon Tiernan-Locke who finished just five seconds behind.

Until then we’ll let Gilbert embrace his six hours, 10 minutes and 41 seconds victory finish.