Team Garmin-Transitions has beaten away the threats of doping and some of the top cycling teams in the world but couldn’t beat the threat of patriotism and cold, hard cash.
Thus, the Boulder-based team has lost Bradley Wiggins, who finished a surprising fourth in this year’s Tour de France, to Team Sky, the new cycling squad from Wiggins” native Great Britain.
Garmin-Transitions had signed Wiggins through 2010 but director Jonathan Vaughters decided to avoid a lengthy court case by agreeing to an undisclosed settlement.
“I understand where he’s coming from,” Vaughters said. “I want to make sure I do whatever’s best for our team. If you’ve got a guy who doesn’t want to be there, sometimes that can be corrosive.
“There’s enormous financial opportunity at Sky and it’s the first ever UK Pro Tour team and I think he wants to be part of that. He does have sort of a patriotic bug going on. And he wants to be, like, the first year, first UK team to do the Tour de France. I don’t blame him for that.”
Vaughters wouldn’t disclose terms of the settlement or the Sky contract but David Millar, Wiggins” Garmin-Transitions teammate and countryman, said, the Sky deal “must’ve been enormous.”
Wiggins, 29, is England’s top track cycling rider who won the gold medal in the 4,000-meter individual pursuit at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He then signed with Vaughters” squad and shocked the world by finished fourth in the Tour.
In a statement, Wiggins said, “It has been an amazing year for me, and my ride at the Tour has given me the drive to aim even higher. I know I can continue to develop, and Team Sky is the perfect place to make that happen.”
The prospect of losing Wiggins has hung over the Boulder squad ever since the Tour in July when Sky representatives reportedly approached him. Vaughters offered him a sizable raise for 2010 but it wasn’t enough.
Vaughters is glad it’s over.
“For sure it’s been a distraction,” Vaughters said. “At the end of the day I don’t know if it’s totally relevant to our team’s performance. Maybe, maybe not. I think Tyler (Farrar) is our best sprinter, and Christian (Vande Velde) is our best GC (General Classification) rider.”
The news was disappointing to a team trying to become the top cycling team in the world. Garmin finished second behind Kazakhstan-based Astana in the last Tour and barely missed winning numerous stages and getting Wiggins on the podium.
“It’s somewhat disappointing for us,” Millar said. “We liked Bradley. We really liked Bradley. He was a wonderful asset to the team. We invested a lot of time and energy into him. It’s sad to see him go.”
As a fellow Brit, Millar understood Wiggins” motivation.
“I empathize with the situation Bradley’s found himself in,” Millar said. “He lives in England. He’s worked with this group of people since he was a junior. They gave him an offer he couldn’t refuse. He would’ve been an incredible man, a wonderful gentleman, if he refused.
“But he’s human.”
Still, Millar remains a little bitter at Sky. Approaching cyclists still under contract, he said, isn’t common.
“I feel a little bit like I’ve been badly treated,” Millar said. “Sky walked in and did what they did. It’s a little ungentlemanly. It’s not something that happens very often.”
At Sky, Wiggins will be the leader of a British team featuring seven British riders.
“Moving to Team Sky is like coming home,” Wiggins said in the statement. “I’ll be on a British team with management and coaches who have shaped me as a rider. They are instrumental in my achievements so far and I know they are critical for the next part of my career.”
John Henderson: 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com.
