Whys and wherefores of Wiggins’s triumph

Jack Copley is not on his own in thinking that Bradley Wiggins maybe did not deserve to be voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year (Yorkshire Post, January 2).

I, too, was of the same opinion and for the same reason he stated in his letter. Had not the Sky team surrounding him got its tactics spot-on he would not have won the Tour de France.

It is interesting to compare Wiggins’s success with the failure of Mark Cavendish (the odds-on favourite) in the Olympic road race, where the team surrounding him, who were expected to get him to the gold medal position, failed to do so. It is interesting to note that Bradley Wiggins was a member of that team.

From: Barrie Frost, Watson’s Lane, Reighton, Filey.

AFTER the magnificent achievements of Bradley Wiggins in winning the Tour de France and Olympic gold medal in 2012, I was a little disappointed to read that Jack Copley doesn’t share my enthusiasm for his unbelievable performances.

To win the Tour de France is, in my opinion, the greatest sporting pinnacle of all. The 2012 race was a distance of approximately 2,200 miles over 20 stages. There were only two rest days in all this period, yet riders were racing for several hours each day. Bradley Wiggins won the race, covering the distance in 87 hours at an average speed of around 25mph. In total, there were nine mountain stages with some climbs averaging a gradient of 1:12 for over 11 miles and temperatures of 30 degrees centigrade were encountered. Is there any other sport which demands so much effort?

Mr Copley’s main point seems to be that the Tour de France is a team event, but Bradley Wiggins still covered 2,200 miles quicker than anyone else.