Bradley Wiggins's Tour de France training

Bradley Wiggins, Tour de France 2012, stage nine

A few years ago one of British Cycling's coaches, and now Team Sky's directeur sportifs, Rod Ellingworth, told me about a tick-box list he'd compiled that detailed what was needed to win the Tour de France.

It was made before Team Sky even came into being and it wasn't aimed at any particular rider, just an intellectual exercise, but one that could be used as and when the right rider and the right Tour came along. A lot of the work Wiggins and Sky's Tour de France team have done in Tenerife this year has been to do with making sure  those boxes are ticked.

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Chris Sidwells
Freelance Journalist & Author

Chris has written thousands of articles for magazines, newspapers and websites throughout the world. He’s written 25 books about all aspects of cycling in multiple editions and translations into at least 25

different languages. He’s currently building his own publishing business with Cycling Legends Books, Cycling Legends Events, cyclinglegends.co.uk, and the Cycling Legends Podcast