Wiggins sinks rivals after swim coach plan

Bradley Wiggins paid tribute to his new training philosophy after he took time out of all his rivals at the Criterium du Daupine.

The Team Sky leader beat world time trial champion Tony Martin and reigning Tour de France champion Cadel Evans, tightening his grip on the yellow jersey, with a convincing victory in the stage 4 time trial to Bourg-en-Bresse.
The Dauphine, the race used by many former Tour champions of the past to warm up for the big event in July, is only the fifth race Wiggins has started in 2012 as he prepares under his new Australian coach Tim Kerrison, whose background is in swimming.
"My coach has not been in cycling for long, he's come from swimming, so I've pretty much been training like the swimmers train," Wiggins told reporters on Thursday.
"I've been constantly training through the year, so it's not like the traditional way for cycling, which is starting in January fat or in really bad condition, and then building, building and showing form in these races."
Wiggins finished third overall at the Volta ao Algarve in February, then won Paris-Nice in March - after which some suggested he had peaked too soon.
After abandoning the Volta a Catalunya, Wiggins won the Tour de Romandie in early May and now holds a commanding lead at the Dauphine.
The training regimen that Kerrison has devised for Wiggins bears many of the hallmarks of elite swimming coaching, dispensing with the notion of using races as training and including some lengthy stints of altitude work between events.
"It's just trying to be 95, 97% all year and constantly working," Wiggins said. "The only downside is that it's mentally difficult, but up to now I've found it pretty good. I've only raced four races this year and I've had long periods between races to freshen up and do good blocks of training, so I'm not going from race to race."