Bradley Wiggins overcame Cadel Evans and bagged an overall victory at the Criterium du Dauphine 2012
Bradley Wiggins of Team Sky started off the final stage of the Criterium du Dauphine with only one goal in his mind, the overall classifications.
He was leading the category with a comfortable margin of 1 minute and 20 seconds on his Australian team-mate Michael Rogers and further 16 seconds over the reigning Tour de France champion, Cadel Evans.
Team Sky cyclist finished 19th during the final stage of the French race, Cadel Evans of Team BMC finished third but Wiggins had enough lead to secure the top overall spot at the race.
Wiggins was over the moon after bagging the overall victory and noted that he has learnt a lot since he joined the British outfit, Team Sky in 2010.
“I’ve come a long way in the three years since Sky was formed, as a person as well,” he noted.
“I’m more confident in doing this [talking to the press] – I still don’t like it – but I’m more comfortable with doing it now”.
He further added, “This is probably the best shape I’ve ever been in to try and win the Tour”.
“It’s not going to be easy; it’s probably going to be the hardest thing I’ve ever done. But then if the Tour was easy, everybody would do it”.
The 32-year-old has now jumped up to the third overall spot at the UCI World Tour Individual rankings as of July 2012 with a total number of 335 points in his bag.
Joaquim Rodriguez of Team Katusha is holding the top position with 404 UCI points with Tom Boonen of Team Omega Pharma-Quick Step is 38 points behind at the second position.
Bradley finished the seven-day race in a total time of 26 hours, 40 minutes and 46 seconds and occupied the top podium spot after the final general classifications.
His team-mate Michael Rogers fell 1 minute and 17 seconds short at the second spot while Cadel Evans of Team BMC occupied the third podium position.
Evans secured the top overall spot at the point’s classifications and bagged 66 important UCI points.
Daniel Moreno Fernandez of Team Katusha, Tony Gallopin of Team RadioShack-Nissan, Bradley Wiggins of Team Sky and Edvald Boasson Hagen of Team Sky claimed the next four positions with 58, 51, 47 and 44 points respectively.
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