Wiggins was Team Sky's big hope for the podium - but finished 24th

By Chris Bevan

Team Sky's turbulent first Tour de France is over, with the pre-race promise of a possible podium place for Bradley Wiggins ending up as nothing more than a distant dream.

After an often brutal three weeks, Dave Brailsford will now be fully aware of just how difficult it is to go from masterminding Olympic track success as British Cycling's performance director to trying to win the world's biggest and toughest road race in his dual role as head of his country's first ProTour road-racing team.

This was only year one of Team Sky's big-budget, five-year mission to deliver a first British winner of Le Tour by 2015 but, although it was far from a complete disaster, it leaves Brailsford with plenty to ponder.

Wiggins, who finished fourth last year before his expensive acquisition from Garmin, was meant to be the figurehead of the team and push for a top-three finish in the general classification (GC), but never recovered from a poor start in the prologue and finished 24th overall.

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There were no stage wins, whether by breakaways or bunch sprints, and no sustained challenge for a jersey of any colour by any of Team Sky's other eight riders to make up for Wiggins being unable to deliver in the GC.

Before Wiggins and Geraint Thomas managed top-10 finishes in Saturday's time trial, the highlight for the entire squad was Thomas's strong showing in the first week that saw him finish second on day three and challenge for the maillot jaune on stage seven.

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After being last year's surprise package, much was expected from the 30-year-old Londoner this time round but, from the start, he failed to deliver.

The gamble of giving Wiggins an early slot in the prologue in Rotterdam back-fired when he was caught in a rain shower and lost time after being forced to creep round the course.

That was down to misfortune, but the seconds he lost in the Netherlands were nothing compared to the minutes which went missing when the race entered the Alps a few days later - and bad luck was not a factor there.

Wiggins was affected by bad weather in the prologue

Wiggins' problems in sticking with the pace were apparent again when he was dropped by the big hitters in the Pyrenees in week three, although some of the time he lost then was due to him conserving energy for the final time trial.

In 2009, he stayed with his rivals in the mountains but this year he consistently faltered in the final stages of long climbs, often tackled in sweltering temperatures.

Brailsford put that down to a lack of fitness, while Wiggins - at times using industrial rather than scientific language - seemed less sure why he was so short of form.

"Pretty quickly I knew we weren't going to win this, that Bradley wasn't going to emulate last year's performance," Brailsford said last week. "That was quite tough.

"It's straightforward, the defining criterion in winning this race is fitness, you have got the legs or you haven't. If Bradley had been 10% fitter than he was, he would have been in contention for general classification."

Wiggins was typically more frank in his analysis, telling reporters: "I'm not going to lie to you. I'm just trying my hardest, battling on rather than giving up. I just haven't got it as I did last year.

"I don't know why. I just feel consistently mediocre. Not brilliant, not awful, just mediocre. It's form - it's a funny old thing."

The Tour's route, with only one short time trial and more mountain stages than usual to mark the 100th anniversary of its arrival in the Pyrenees, did not suit Wiggins' strengths either.

And his hopes were undoubtedly hit by the broken arm that forced Simon Gerrans to withdraw at the start of the second week because the Australian was picked specifically to help him in the mountains.

Essentially, no. After Team Sky signed Wiggins, who proved in 2009 that he was a realistic GC contender, they decided to put all their efforts into getting him on to the podium on Paris.

Brailsford told the BBC on Sunday: "We've got to remember that this time last year Bradley finished fourth in this race and he wasn't far behind the riders in front of him.

Gerrans broke his arm after crashing in stage eight

"With anybody who can finish that close to the best riders, there was no reason why we shouldn't have believed that he could go better."

Wiggins didn't, and he had to constantly reassess his goals as the race went on, going from targeting the top three, to a place in the top 10, to merely chasing a stage win. All of that proved beyond him.

Brailsford's decision to give Wiggins maximum support in the mountains meant the non-selection of sprinter Greg Henderson, their most successful stage winner since their formation, and his absence instantly reduced Team Sky's chances of getting on the race radar at the business end of the flatter stages.

The other consequence of Gerrans' enforced withdrawal was that he could not fulfil his secondary role on the team, which was to go for breakaway wins in weeks two and three and try to secure a stage win in that manner.

Juan Antonio Flecha, Edvald Boasson-Hagen and even Wiggins himself did get involved in breaks in the final week, but none were successful in staying away.

We saw more experimentation when those three, plus Thomas, took the initiative in the bunch sprint that settled stage 18 and tried to launch Boasson-Hagen, but the 23-year-old Norwegian finished sixth after taking the wrong line and a maiden Tour stage win eluded them.

Plenty. For a start, it is very early days indeed - Team Sky were only launched in January, and some of their rivals on Le Tour are well into their second decade.

This year was only ever going to be a first step on a long journey and experience is probably the most valuable thing they have gained.

Lokvist was Team Sky's top-placed rider in the general classification

Thomas's impressive early exploits saw him spend several days in the white jersey worn by the Tour's best young rider.

And, like Steve Cummings, the other Briton in the squad, the Welshman will have learned an awful lot by serving as a domestique for Wiggins, who himself approached and rode the Tour as a team leader for the first time.

"It was a major part of our plan to put young British riders in the environment of a big race like the Tour and that's what we did here," Brailsford said.

Elsewhere, Swedish rider Thomas Lovkvist, who at 17th was Team Sky's highest placed rider in the GC, might have threatened a top-10 finish had he not waited to help Wiggins in the early mountain stages.

And Boasson-Hagen, despite ill-health, showed again why he is rated one of the best young all-round talents in cycling by picking up plenty of sprint points, even if he lacked the know-how to claim a stage for himself.

Wiggins at least showed something of his old self with ninth place in the time trial despite a strong head-wind that was not blowing when all of the riders who finished faster than him were out on the road.

After that stage, a more upbeat Wiggins told BBC Sport: "Considering this is our first Tour, the team have come a long way. It's been a huge learning curve and we will take a lot away from it, make some changes and come back stronger - roll on next year."

And last, but certainly not least, the amazing support of British fans on the roadside has also been a massive boost.

"The response from the fans has been phenomenal," added Brailsford. "In that sense the Tour was a tremendous success which surpasses our expectations."

Wiggins, a triple Olympic track champion described his Tour preparations as "near perfect" before the race began but his performance, and subsequent comments, in the last few weeks suggest otherwise.

He now feels he used too much energy to prolong his challenge in the Giro d'Italia at the end of May - he was seventh overall after 14 of the 19 stages - and points at Ivan Basso, who won that race but finished 32nd in Le Tour, as evidence you cannot challenge in both.

Wiggins will undoubtedly prepare differently in 2011 and, despite his disappointing showing this time around, it is too early to write him off as a podium contender even if he appears to have little hope of ever beating Alberto Contador or Andy Schleck to the yellow jersey.

Brailsford's scientific approach has brought British riders track success

Behind him, Team Sky will continue to aim high - that is Brailsford's way - and their scientific approach will also remain in place.

When things didn't work for his track riders, Brailsford changed them until they did. Whether it is different bikes or different beds for his riders to sleep in, you can bet he will be trying everything to find the winning formula.

Team Sky's long-term aim of delivering a first British winner of the Tour de France by 2015 will remain in place too.

But could their short-term focus shift if Wiggins falters again next year and they have to wait for the likes of Manxman Peter Kennaugh, 21, and Yorkshire's Ben Swift, 22, to develop into GC contenders?

In that scenario, stage wins would provide the feel-good factor and it cannot have gone unnoticed that the rider who managed more of those than anyone else this year is British.

Bringing in Mark Cavendish might appear to deviate from that mission of overall victory but the best sprinter in the world would provide plenty of positive publicity and take the pressure off whoever is earmarked as Britain's Tour de France winner in waiting.

That is just one direction that Team Sky might go in, but Brailsford has to consider every option, and it looks like he is doing so.

"There are certain areas in which we will definitely change things," Brailsford said. "I've seen enough in this Tour to feel I've got a brilliant bunch of guys on the staff. With this whole project, the train has just left the station and I think there is a lot more of this journey left before we get there."

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