Bradley Wiggins left off Sky’s Criterium du Dauphine roster


The Dauphine is one of the traditional warm-up events for the Tour de France and Sky have decided Chris Froome – last year’s champion in both races – will lead their charge at the eight-stage event in June, while Wiggins will head-up their campaign at the Tour de Suisse.

While the decision to send Wiggins to Switzerland seems to continue the 34-year-old’s fall from grace at Sky, the British team argued on Monday that the 2012 champion could still be involved at this year’s Tour de France.

“Both of these races will form part of our selection for the Tour (de France),” Sky team principal Dave Brailsford said.

“We have to name 13 riders in a long list during June and we’ll do that from across the squad, including riders at the Route du Sud, not only those in the Dauphine and Tour de Suisse groups.”

Although Wiggins won the 2012 Tour, he was left off Sky’s roster last year due to a knee injury, which allowed Froome to win the yellow jersey in France.

Froome is expected to lead Sky at this year’s Tour again, which has cast doubt on Wiggins’ involvement.

But Brailsford insisted Sky do not consider the nine-stage Tour de Suisse an inferior race to the Dauphine and praised Wiggins’ victory at the Tour of California last month.

“Both the Criterium du Dauphine and Tour de Suisse are WorldTour events and we are looking to perform in both races,” the 50-year-old said.

“Bradley heads to Switzerland with a strong team after a great win in California and we’ve got the right group for the Dauphine, especially considering the nature of the course.”

Wiggins won the Dauphine in 2011 and 2012.

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