Ineos and Brailsford made a huge mistake dropping Geraint Thomas and Chris Froome – Bradley Wiggins

Bradley Wiggins believes that Geraint Thomas would have been a top-10 rider even out of form at the Tour de France.

Ineos Grenadiers’ decision to leave Geraint Thomas and Chris Froome out of their Tour de France line-up has been proved a big misjudgement, according to Bradley Wiggins on the latest episode of The Breakway.

Wiggins’ comments come after Egan Bernal lost seven minutes in a horrible performance on the final climb of the day, effectively ending any chance of Ineos finishing on the podium.

And Wiggins says that the decision to leave out the big names, even if they were off their best, was a poor one.

“I think you take your big players to races like that,” Wiggins said. "The same as last year when Dimension-Data didn’t take Mark Cavendish to the Tour. Just their presence at the dinner table, their presence on the flat stages in the line-up…

"I can’t see Geraint not being in the same position as Tom Dumoulin. I could see him riding in that style if he chose to. With Bernal falling away I can still see Geraint there in a similar space to where Richie Porte is.

"Geraint not on form will probably be where Richie Porte is at the moment, Geraint on form would be challenging to win the race.

“Chris Froome as four-time winner I think has earned the right just to be there in that team, in that line-up,” Wiggins continued.

“If anything as preparation for the Vuelta a Espana. I don’t see how Carapaz was a direct and comparable replacement for either of those riders."

It was initially believed that Froome and Thomas contributed to the decision to move them onto the other Grand Tour teams, but comments since suggest it was a call that neither agreed with. And Wiggins says more detail will almost certainly emerge.

“We didn’t realise at the start how little input they had into their own selections,” he said.

“It’s a line-up that is so unlike the Sky and Ineos of the past. We’ve just Luke Rowe in there it’s not the team it was from a British perspective of course. It’s just lacking something, an experienced head to just call those shots. A Geraint in that team just changes the whole dynamic. It’ll transpire in the next few weeks what exactly happened.”