Bradley Wiggins has hit out at critics at a press conference held after stage eight of the 2012 Tour de France.

The Team Sky leader, who leads this year’s Tour de France by 10 seconds from Cadel Evans (BMC Racing), gave his outspoken response to a question from an Associated Press reporter at a press conference held at the end of today’s eighth stage.

The AP reported that Wiggins had reacted angrily when their reporter asked for his response to cynical comments made on social media.

“I cannot be dealing with people like that. It justifies their own bone-idleness because they can’t ever imagine applying themselves to anything in their lives,” Wiggins said.

“And it’s easy for them to sit under a pseudonym on Twitter and write that rather than get off their arses in their own life and apply themselves, and work hard at something and achieve something.”

Wiggins’ teammates rode a near flawless stage seven, and on stage eight placed their leader in a position to join the key selection with Evans, Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale), Denis Menchov (Katusha), and Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Lotto-Belisol).

Tomorrow’s ninth-stage, a 41.5km individual time trial from Arc-et-Senans to Besançon will place the favourites head-to-head.