Tour de France 2014: Sky accused of 'low' act by leaving Sir Bradley Wiggins out of team

Wiggins on his winning ride in 2011 (Getty)

Former British cycling great Robert Millar has criticised the likely non-selection of Sir Bradley Wiggins for Team Sky's line-up in the Tour de France this year, calling it "the ultimate snub for the [Tour de France's] Grand Depart in Yorkshire."

Writing in his regular blog for cyclingnews.com, Millar said: "Things are pretty desperate when a national hero like [Sir] Bradley Wiggins, first British winner of the Tour, one of the most successful Olympians, BBC Sportsman of the Year, honoured by the Queen, feted and admired throughout the land isn't at the start of a Tour de France in his own country."

"It's pretty low to take that opportunity from him. The team can try to hide behind excuses and so-called reasoning but it shows a total lack of respect for what he has given to Team Sky."

Millar is a former King of the Mountains and came fourth overall in the 1984 Tour, Britain's best result until Wiggins's came third in 2009.

Although Sky's final team selection has yet to be made, Wiggins told the BBC on Friday that he did not believe he would be part of the squad.

"The team is focused around Chris Froome. I am gutted. I feel I am in the form I was two years ago. Now if I want to go to the Tour again, I might have to go elsewhere."

Froome starts the Criterium du Dauphiné today, a crucial warm-up race for the Tour, in which the Sky leader is defending champion, and which Wiggins won in 2011 and 2012. Wiggins will now focus on the Commonwealth Games and the Tour of Spain.