Giro d'Italia 2019 - Bradley Wiggins: 'Team Sky have dehumanised cycling'

The British outfit, now under the Team Ineos flag, have won four of the past five Grand Tours, prompting critics to call their success boring given their capacity to lock down races.

However, they are without an established leader in Italy, allowing for different storylines to come to the fore.

Wiggins says Dario Cataldo’s triumph on Sunday’s Stage 15, coupled with Vincenzo Nibali’s late surge, showcased passion that is lacking from the sport – contrasting it with Chris Froome’s heroic comeback at last year’s Giro that received muted plaudits.

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"When Chris Froome did that, the likes of Dave Brailsford said 'it was a fuelling strategy – it was this, it was that'," he said on The Bradley Wiggins Show, available on all major podcast platforms this morning.

"Sky dehumanise the race and take the emotion off course. This isn’t me being a hypocrite, I obviously profited very highly from that, but you see it when you’ve come out of it.

"The first person we hear about is not Froome, we hear about Dave. It comes back to him… Whereas Nibali, you’re watching that and what it meant to Cataldo. That’s what the race is about. These two are making it everything we love about this race.

"We want to hear from Cataldo with his cat at the finish. Come on, let’s see it. Froome came across the line last year, you saw what it meant to him. Let’s hear from him. I think that’s sometimes where they [Dave and Team Ineos] fall down a bit."

Those views were echoed by Eurosport’s lead presenter Orla Chennaoui.

"Watching that stage was the most human passionate display of aggressive riding. It was a true joy to watch," she said.

"If that had been someone else, or another team, it would have been applauded in a totally different way. It’s sad, isn’t it?"

Cataldo’s win ended a 10-year drought at his home Grand Tour, while compatriot Nibali’s charge boosted his GC hopes. Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) sits 1:47 adrift of race leader Richard Carapaz (Movistar) and exactly a minute off Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) in the General Classification.

Wiggins also recalled his early experiences at Team Sky, saying that their experiences at the London 2012 Olympics drove them to becoming the sport’s leading force.

However, while Wiggins stressed he was not bashing his former team, the 39-year-old admitted that their winning streak had some downsides.

"When you look back, you realise we never celebrated anything [at Team Sky]. And that’s a shame. We didn’t enjoy the moments. But that’s why we could go from race to race and win. 'Great, we won. Brilliant. Tomorrow’s another day.'

"We got that attitude from the Olympics – trying to win three golds. Win the individual pursuit, come back, medal in the draw. Team pursuit gold, medal in the draw.

"You’re not celebrating. The team pursuiters would be getting their rubbish clothes on to go out partying, but I had the madison the next day with Cav [Mark Cavendish].

"That was the attitude we took into road racing. Why should we peak for the Tour de France? No, win Paris-Nice and go all the way through. We’re not going to celebrate and go out after every win, we just treated it day by day and ticked the boxes. We got to the Olympic time trial and then you look back and think 'I won everything this year'. Then you get three months of partying!

"That’s instilled in Team Ineos now. Do you want to win races or do you want emotional great moments with your mates? Well, they’re not your mates because you’re never going to see them again after – they’re just colleagues.

"It’s brutal and it takes away the romantic side of it, but I never would have won all those races had I not been like that. That’s how I won the Tour, it’s how G [Geraint Thomas] won the Tour, because of that system."