Tour de France WAGS
As David Millar so succinctly put it following stage 11 of this year’s Tour: “Oh SNAP! Sky have WAG WAR on Twitter. This shit just got real.”
The “war” involved the WAGs of Team Sky’s top two riders Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome following Froome’s unexpected attack just three kilometres from the summit finish.
After Froome appeared to receive orders over the radio telling him to wait for his team leader, his girlfriend Michelle Cound took to Twitter:
“Beyond disappointed….& I know what happened just then,” she tweeted to her 3,108 followers.
Cath Wiggins, whose husband Brad appeared to have been left stranded in no-man’s land by Froome’s move, responded pointedly with:
“See Mick Rogers and Richie Porte for examples of genuine, selfless effort and true professionalism.”
“Typical!!” was Michelle’s response.
So who are the Tour de France WAGs? Here’s our guide to the most outspoken other halves of the peloton:
Cath Wiggins – wife of Bradley
A no-nonsense Northerner who you take on at your peril. Probably wears the trousers in the Wiggins household. Uses her Twitter account to settle scores and vent her spleen over various perceived injustices, ranging from customer service at her local equestrian centre to the ridiculous costumes worn by Tour de France spectators. I used to be one of her 6,000 followers until I dared disagree with her over something and she ordered me to “unfollow her”. Being a gentleman(and coward), I complied.
A former nurse and now full-time mother to kids Ben and Isabella, Cath is a modestly successful track cyclist, regularly turning out for Liverpool Mercury at the Friday Night Track League at Manchester’s Velodrome. She gave up road cycling after being involved in a minor accident with a motorist in 2009.
Will be waiting on the Champs-Elysees later this month with a six-pack of Boddingtons for hubby and a knuckleduster for Froome.
Michelle Cound – girlfriend of Chris Froome.
Describes herself as “Welsh South African”. She and “Kenyan Brit” Froome make the United Nations look like a rural parish. A self-confessed “IT geek”, Michelle obviously doesn’t shop at Asda – she lives in Monaco and is “a director” of a South African platinum mining company. Oh, and she spends a lot of time taking photographs of her boyfriend’s skinny torso, in her role as photographer for a South African cycling website.
As a professional snapper, she has an extra reason to be pissed off with the Wiggins clan. Not only was boyfriend ordered to sacrifice his own bid for glory to help team leader Brad, but she would dearly love to have the same backstage access to Team Sky that has been granted to Brad’s Parka-wearing photographer mate Scott Mitchell.
Will be waiting on the Champs-Elysees wearing a miner’s helmet.
Peta Todd – girlfriend of Mark Cavendish
Former “Page 3 stunna” who recently broke the hearts of the Nuts generation by giving up posing topless. She now devotes her time to towering over her pint-sized boyfriend(she’s 5’ 10”) at charity events to raise money for Help for Heroes. As the official “pin-up” for this soldiers’ charity, she has climed Kilimanjaro, skydived and cycled 400 miles in five days. After this latter feat, she auctioned off her cycling shorts and bike for £7,000.
In 2010, she celebrated “40 Years of Page 3” by taking part in a students’ debate at Durham University, where she spoke in favour of the motion “This house believes Page 3 empowers women”.
Will be waiting on the Champs-Elysees fully-clothed.
Chiara Passerini – wife of Cadel Evans
An Italian pianist and music teacher who the squeaky-voiced Aussie proposed to after completing his first Tour de France in 2005. They live in Switzerland with their recently adopted Ethiopian son Robel.
As well as updating her husband’s website, Chiara maintains a quaint blog called “Chiara and The Little Sparrows” which details the adventures of her family. The most recent entry gives a flavour:
We went to visit Papi who is currently in France doing something silly with his bike, but I won’t talk about that because cycling is not welcome on this page.
In the past, however, she has been quick to jump to the defence of Cadel and other members of the peloton whose reputations have been tainted by rumours of doping.
Will be waiting on the Champs-Elysees for her husband’s urine sample.
Julie Voeckler – wife of Thomas
31-year-old Julie puts her British counterparts to shame. Not for her sitting at home, eating cream cakes and picking fights on Twitter while watching hubby toil over the Alps. She has packed her two young children, aged one and three, into a camper van and is following her husband around the Tour de France. She parks in the team hotel’s car park each night and manages a few hours of quality time with France’s favourite cyclist. “We might go for a walk in the countryside,” she says.
Will be waiting on the Champs-Elysees, probably double-parked in a Loading Only zone.
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