Fresh details of Wiggins-Froome spat revealed in Walsh’s new book
According to David Walsh's new book, Bradley Wiggins only paid Chris Froome his 2012 Tour bonus in September 2013
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New details of the rift between Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome during the 2012 Tour de France are forthcoming in David Walsh’s new book.
Inside Team Sky, available on Amazon.com, details Froome’s ride to victory in the 2013 Tour and chronicles the season from Walsh’s insider view after being embedded with the team throughout the season.
While the book focuses on the 2013 season, it also delves into the acrimonious split between Froome and 2012 Tour winner Wiggins.
Wiggins and Froome battled throughout the 2012 Tour, with tension ratcheting up between the teammates as the race sped toward Paris. Froome looked stronger in the mountains, but Wiggins was killing it in the time trials, yet that didn’t quell friction between the pair.
Tension spilled over in stage 11, the Alpine day that finished at La Toussuire, when Froome accelerated away from Wiggins, and only slowed on the insistence of then-sport director Sean Yates. Wiggins went on to win the first Tour for a Briton and there was no love lost between the pair afterward.
According to Froome, Wiggins never called to congratulate him on his 2013 Tour win. But making bigger waves is the revelation that Wiggins failed to deliver the winner’s bonus to Froome until late this year. Though other teammates had been paid their split of the bonus, as is customary, Froome was not paid his share until the week of this year’s road world championships in Tuscany.
Walsh confirmed on Twitter this week that the bonus was paid only after pressure from team boss David Brailsford. Another source, who asked to not be named in this story, confirmed to VeloNews that Froome only received his share of the bonus in September 2013.
Froome finished second in the 2012 Tour, earning a sizable chunk of prize money in his own right, at 200,000 euros, but tradition has it that the race winner splits the prize money between everyone who helped him win, including backroom staff, such as soigneurs and mechanics.
