He is clearly an athlete of the fiercest physical and mental mettle.
He did it on the track for many years and he developed into a road racer of class, having started relatively late.
Last year (and I have no reason to suppose he micro-dosed on naughtiness or did anything else ill-advised) he started well and just got better. The absence of some of his big competitors in the big events hardly handicapped him, but he beat everyone who showed up, with the complete support of a most excellent team.
Nonetheless he (like
Evans before him) was knocking on a bit when he got his first
Maillot Jaune.
Despite the fact that the course this year is less Wigginsy, he was always going to struggle to repeat last year's triumph (and it really was a triumph, if a dull one).
He was not abetted by a baying public and some in the media who thought he had only to choose which GT he wanted to win... and then go and do it. It has never been like that, but the Armstrong era gave some people the impression that it was... I think.
I see him as something of a busted flush now, but what a year he had last year - and what an extraordinary career he had on the track (although I read about it only after he
roadified).
Once you have produced at the level he's produced at for as long as he has, there is some mitigation for making excuses.
