Wiggins leads from the front with Team Sky desperate to avoid Tour drama

After living dangerously in the opening week of the Tour so far, with world champion Mark Cavendish and Bernhard Eisel crashing heavily on stage four, a day after Kanstantsin Siutsou abandoned with a broken leg, Team Sky upped the ante.

The change of tactics was an instruction from team principal Dave Brailsford, who described the performance as “a million miles better”.

Wiggins was forced out of the 2011 Tour with a fractured collarbone after being involved in a mid-peloton crash and endured some close calls before yesterday’s 196.5-km fifth stage from Rouen to Saint-Quentin.

Team Sky operated a full, eight-rider ‘train’ in the finale, but world champion Cavendish, nursing wounds from his 70kph tumble to the tarmac in Rouen 24 hours earlier, could finish only fifth behind German sprinter Andre Greipel, who won for a second successive day.

Wiggins said: “As a unit we wanted to be a bit more present. It wasn’t necessarily about placing Cav (yesterday), but also myself.

“I’ve been a bit caught up in all the mess the last few days and thinking of last year, what happened.

“You just can’t take any chances. Everyone realises where the safest place to ride is.

“It was just a conscious effort. We’ve got the legs, we’ve got one of the best teams here so if we could just use that a bit more and, as Dave B (Brailsford) said this morning ‘let’s just stop dithering’.”

Team Sky’s primary concern is Wiggins’s ambition of being the first British Tour winner in Paris on July 22.

The 32-year-old Londoner remained second in the overall standings, seven seconds adrift of Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack-Nissan) and 10 seconds ahead of seventh-placed Cadel Evans (BMC Racing), the defending champion.

Asked about his Tour so far, Wiggins said: “I’m second in the Tour de France. There’s only one place to go.”

With the mountains and Monday’s time-trial on the horizon, Wiggins is determined not to ride his luck.

Team Sky sports director Sean Yates added: “We’re approaching the crucial point in the race where the differences are going to be made and we don’t want to leave anything to chance.

“We’ve been lucky not having injury or bad luck which could possibly cause Bradley to lose time stupidly.”

Brailsford added: “We decided (yesterday) to make a zero risk strategy. The way we rode (yesterday) is the best way to keep Brad out of trouble and increase his chances of winning.”

For Wiggins, riding at the front of the peloton was about more than just positioning.

“You risk de-training a bit in this first week because it’s so easy in the peloton, you’re literally doing nothing at times,” he said.

“It was nice for me to be able to hit the front and open up a little bit.”

The plan was justified as another late crash fractured the field with around 3km to go.

Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Sharp), a stage winner in 2011, fell to the ground and Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) was among those to feel the impact of the domino effect. Sagan eventually finished 154th and Farrar 194th and last.

Matt Goss (Orica-GreenEdge) was second to Greipel, with Juan Jose Haedo (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff) third.