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.

Lollipop’s blog of the year

Cycling, tennis, football, Jay-Z. Lollipop covered it all in 2013. But what was our blog of the year?

For us watching Olympic athletes race on the streets of Manchester last May was definitely a sporting highlight.

Long Jump Champion Greg Rutherford and US gold medallist Allyson Felix took part in the Great City Games and were cheered on by a raucous Manchester Crowd.

The weather was scorching and the athletes were on fire as Felix ran a City Games record of 16.36 in the Women’s 150m.

The event reminded Lollipop of London 2012 and the sensational wins from Paralympics Gold Medallist Jonnie Peacock  who also ran in the Manchester event and 15,000m champion Mo Farah.

For such inspirational events to happen in our home town shows the sporting talent across Manchester and what we have to look forward to in 2014.

It was a tough year for squash as the sports governing body fought hard to add the game into the Olympics last September. To Lollipop’s dismay the International Olympic Committee (IOC) voted to reinstate wrestling rather then add squash or baseball to the bill. However the sport has enjoyed huge financial support in Manchester as the community and club programmes are nearly at capacity with children and adults from across the city. There has been a complete new refurbishment to all three courts at Moss side Leisure facility. The National Squash Centre is also home to England Squash and Manchester Squash.  From the 10-16th February the National Squash Championships will take place in the Manchester centre proving to the IOC that squash has what it takes to become an Olympic sport.

Cycling also made the news in the Summer of 2013 but this time for all the right reasons as Chris Froome became only the second British man to win the Tour De France. The 28-year-old took the title by more than four minutes last year. Now as the cycling capital – Manchester will be one of the three cities to host The Sainsbury’s Sports Cycle relief on Sunday 23^rd March. The charity event heralded by Olympic Gold Medallist Sir Chris Hoy will also take place in Glasgow and London at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The gruelling 25 and 50-mile routes will start and finish at Old Trafford football stadium, where the 3-mile Family Cycle will take place.

Rugby was huge in 2013 as the British and Irish Lions pulled off a historic 41-16 win over Australia at the ANZ Stadium in Sydney. It was the teams first test series victory against Australia since 1989 and to top it off the boys won Sports Personality Team of the year in December. Manchester will also be taking part the sport’s success by hosting the Superleague magic weekend at Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium on 25-26^th May. All 14 Super League Clubs will return to the Etihad Stadium to battle it out once more in front of fans and reporters.

So the line up is set. No doubt Lollipop will find more events throughout 2014 to blog about. But for now lets sit back and look forward to sport in 2014.

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.

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.