Former Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins has backed his former team boss Dave Brailsford after the Team Ineos coach dropped Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas from the Ineos Tour team. With Froome and Thomas off the pace at the recent Criterium du Dauphiné, the British team will now develop its 2020 challenge around defending champion Egan Bernal. Thomas will be aiming for the Giro d'Italia, while Froome will be aiming for the Vuelta a España.

Thomas won the 2018 Tour de France and finished second a year later, while Froome won the Tour four times and was looking for a record-setting fifth title after returning from a horrific crash in 2019.

Wiggins has a history of being removed from the Tour de France under Brailsford's management: in 2013, while racing as the defending Tour champion, he was diagnosed with a knee injury and a year later, despite being in perfect shape and health and was homebound for the second year.

"As a past winner and his (Bernal's) position on the team, it would be natural that he would always be selected for the Tour. But this is what makes Dave Brailsford such a good coach and why he is so successful. As I myself have experienced within the team, no one is bigger than the team and he can sweep that emotion away and select a team purely on his assets and form guide alone," Wiggins said in a podcast with Eurosport. [They don't make decisions like this lightly, there are a lot of thoughts, numbers, and facts out there, and they are obviously betting on Bernal with last year's Giro winner (Richard) Carapas. Perhaps they are thinking of a two-pronged attack.

"But I don't think it's a negative. They always have a plan, a goal, to win three Grand Tours in one season, and Gelant has one more month to get where he wants to be.

Wiggins supported Brailsford's decision, but also pointed out the benefits for both Thomas and Froome, given that they are now free of the pressure of the Tour and have new goals for the rest of the season. The extended preparation time for the Vuelta and Giro, respectively, has given both riders additional time.

"We can't leave Gelant out of the Tour team lightly. It's a big decision. He is dedicated, hardworking, and unflappable. So Gelant will say," Wiggins continued, "I might be able to play a role in the early stages, but I might fall off at the top."

"Dave would have said, 'You're a better rider, train four more weeks and you'll win the Giro,' and G would have been part of that decision, G would have been part of that decision."

"Froome, as he said in his message, has been on a forward trajectory since this time last year. He has a chance to win the Vuelta. I won't pass him, but he will definitely be on top of it and he has eight more weeks to do that. We had this romantic vision of him coming back and winning the Tour after his horrible accident. I think we were asking too much of him."