Wiggins wins his second Criterium

Party like it's 2011! Bradley Wiggins re-wins the Criterium du Dauphine, the one-week stage race preparatory to the Tour de France, which starts later this month. His teammate Michael Rogers came in second in the general standings, over 80 seconds behind, and last year's Tour winner Cadel Evans took third and the green jersey for points. Disappointing performances by Andy Schleck (retired) and Vincenzo Nibali (out of the top 10).

Wiggins pulled off an extremely convincing performance this week, showing that he is to be feared in time trials and climbs alike. Perhaps more importantly, at least given the realities of today's road cycling, Wiggins has a killer team: Rogers, Boasson-Hagen, Flecha, Froome, Porte, Thomas, Uran... all riders that serve Wiggins in Team Sky but that would be captains in any other team! And then there's Cavendish, who's useless in climbs but is guaranteed to win at least three or four sprints at the end of flat stages, so Team Sky could sweep this year's Tour.

As usual, the Criterium is suppoed to give information about who's hot and who's not. This year, it not only confirmed that Wiggins is sitting at the big boys' table, but that he is sitting at the head of the table. This win puts Wiggins in prime position for a Tour victory, and in my opinion he's the one that the usual favorites (Evans, Schleck, Nibali) have to beat.

PHOTOS ~~||~~ Official site ~~||~~ Report #1 ~~||~~ Report #2