Bradley Wiggins targets gradual build-up to 2011 Tour de France
Sky rider Bradley Wiggins has said he will skip the 2011 Giro d'Italia and ease more gradually into next season as he prepares for the Tour de France in July.
Wiggins, who joined Sky when the team was launched in December 2009, said he was enjoying having a full off-season without transfer dealings after making his last competitive appearance of 2010 at the Tour of Lombardy in October.
"This time last year, I hadn't been announced in the team, so it's been a bit more of a traditional off-season this year where I can really relax, plan for next year and there's nothing else going on outside of that," Wiggins told
Cyclingnews at a sponsor's event on Friday 26 November.
"I had three weeks off after the Tour of Lombardy and I've just slowly been getting back into training. I finished racing quite late so it's sort of works out a bit better really, I didn't lose too much fitness."
This year, the pressure was on Wiggins to follow up his fourth place at the 2009 Tour with a place on the podium, but the Englishman failed to impress for Sky, finishing 24th overall.
Wiggins, who admitted to falling victim to outside pressure, said he will skip next year's Giro and only race selected Spring Classics events in a more gradual build-up to the Grand Boucle.
"I'll be following quite a different programme on the road. I won't be doing the Giro, that's for sure. I'll do a few more early season Classics, just a bit more like 2009 really. I'll be racing the races I enjoy racing, have a bit more
fun, rather than your traditional Tour programme.
"It's just about getting back to the fun of it. There's so much made of preparing for the Tour — doing training races and all that. I'll just concentrate on trying to win races and think about the Tour later on."
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