Free Bradley Wiggins by John Deering

race, but it wasn’t the same as winning in Paris. And he will have to wait until 2013 at the earliest to try that again. So will Alberto
Contador, sitting out 2012 to serve his long overdue ban and mourn the loss of many of his victories over the past two years.
    It all meant that the way was clear for Bradley Wiggins to establish himself as the rightful successor to the Tour de France throne. The order was still a tall one: see off Cadel Evans, Vincenzo
Nibali, Frank Schleck, Jurgen Van Den Broeck, Robert Gesink, Ryder Hesjedal, Denis Menchov, Alejandro Valverde and any number of day-to-day issues. But not Andy Schleck or Alberto Contador. Brad
has 99 problems but the Schleck ain’t one of them.
    *
    Today’s run from Épernay to Metz is dead flat and the last chance for the fast men to flex their muscles before everything tilts upwards in the Vosges tomorrow. A
nice steady day, perhaps, a good day for a break full of non-contenders to get away and give the peloton a day off from chasing and crashing.
    I wouldn’t bet on it.
    There are as many incidents today as the rest of the week put together. André Greipel manages to hit the deck twice and dislocate his shoulder before the race gets anywhere near Metz.
Things begin to break up, with small groups of fallers and those caught behind them chasing at various intervals back down the road. Race radio is struggling to keep up with the dozens of little
accidents and a couple of big ones.
    Team Sky are concentrating on yesterday’s tactic of riding near the front but it’s not easy. Lots of the spills are near the front. There are still 25km to go when the day’s
biggest quake hits, with a pile-up sending a shudder of aftershocks back through the bunch. Richie Porte is one of those to lose his wheels and pick up some scrapes and grazes in exchange. The main
damage is in race terms rather than personal injury though, as a sizeable group is delayed behind the mess, just as the spearhead at the front of the race is driving at top speed to capture the
day’s break and set up the big sprint.
    That big sprint doesn’t include Mark Cavendish. The World Champion answers some of the critics of his bike handling as he uses all his teenage BMX nous to avoid the smash that happens
right in front of him. Unfortunately, his desperate braking and skidding brings about a puncture instead of a shunt, and he is forced to wait like everybody else. Boasson Hagen is there too,
slipping quietly out of the overall top ten with the delay.
    Up the road in the front group, Bradley Wiggins and Cadel Evans would love the time to breathe a sigh of relief, but they’re both flat out to hold their forward positions and avoid any
more mess. Cancellara is there, too, his custody of the yellow jersey seemingly allowed to run its natural course and not be taken off him a day early by misfortune. He has worn it easily and
proudly for a week now.
    More amazingly, as the remaining contenders line up for the sprint, is the appearance in the Lotto Belisol train of André Greipel. ‘I didn’t want to sprint, but my teammates
talked me into it,’ explains the injured German later.
    He won’t be taking stage number 3 today, though. Stage number 3 is instead the reward for the incredible Peter Sagan, showing that he can outpace the fast men on the flat as well as the
strong men on the tough finishes. That green jersey is starting to look very comfortable now.
    Time to look back up the road and count the casualties rolling in. Those with pretensions of a decent finish in a couple of weeks’ time include Frank Schleck, Dutch climber Robert Gesink,
and Garmin-Sharp’s Ryder Hesjedal, who loses a whopping thirteen minutes plus.
    Two men who will need to steady their nerves this evening are Dave Brailsford and Sean Yates. ‘Five minutes before that crash happened Brad came right up to the front with Christian
[Knees] and it was one of the best moves he’s made so far,’ says Brailsford. ‘The