Bradley Wiggins

Bradley Wiggins’ father, Australian-born Gary Wiggins, was a professional cyclist in the 1970s and 80s and was the 1984 European Madison champion with Britain’s Tony Doyle. Bradley was born in Belgium whilst his father was riding there, but at the age of two returned to England with his mother. He took an interest in cycling after watching Chris Boardman at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, and shortly afterwards, joined his first cycling club. The world junior pursuit champion at 18, Wiggins then won the first of four Commonwealth Games silver medals as part of the England pursuit team. The others silvers were team and individual pursuit in 2002, and team pursuit in 2014.

Wiggins went to his first Olympics at Sydney in 2000 and was in the pursuit team that beat the French to win the bronze medal. He then had a spell racing in France before returning to England and worked with Chris Boardman. Wiggins entered his first Grand Tour, the Giro d’Italia in 2003 and that same year won his first senior world title, when he won the individual pursuit at the World Championships in Stuttgart, having won two team silvers and a bronze in the three previous Worlds. He came away from the 2004 Olympics with a complete set of medals; bronze in the Madison, silver in the team pursuit and gold in the individual pursuit as he became the first Briton since athlete Mary Rand in 1964 to win three medals at one Olympics.

In 2005 Wiggins went back to road racing and entered his first Tour de France, before reverting back to track racing in 2007 when he appeared in his first World Championships in four years, wining gold in both the team and individual pursuit in Mallorca. A year later, in the 2008 World Championships at Manchester, Wiggins won three gold medals; the individual and team pursuit and the Madison with Mark Cavendish, who was a late replacement for his regular Madison partner Rob Hayles. Wiggins then went to the Beijing Olympics where he won both pursuit gold medals, becoming the first man to successfully defend his individual title. Wiggins and Cavendish were favourites for the Madison gold medal but finished a disappointing ninth.

In 2009, Wiggins decided once again that he wanted to concentrate on road racing and he moved with his family to northern Spain where his new team Garmin-Slipstream were based. After a series of good performances he then finished fourth overall in the 2009 Tour de France, equaling the best ever finish by a British rider. However, three years later, following Lance Armstrong’s disqualification, he was promoted to third place - Britain’s first podium finish in the Tour, albeit three years after he should have stood on the podium. At the end of the season he joined the Sky Team as their new team leader, but he struggled with fitness and form in his first full season with his new team. However, the 2011 season was better, and after breaking a collar bone following a crash in the Tour de France, he finished third in his first Vuelta de España.

In 2012 Wiggins started off what was to be a memorable year by becoming the first Briton in the 65-year history of the Tour de Romandie to win the race and then won the Tour de France as the first ever British winner of the race in its 109-year history. Uniquely, Wiggins did something even the great Eddy Merckx could not achieve and that was win the Tour de France, Tour de Romandie, Paris-Nice and Critérium de Dauphiné in the same season. Wiggins followed his tour win with his record breaking seventh Olympic medal at the London Games, when he won the road time trial event – Chris Hoy was to equal Wiggins’ seven medals tally later in the Games. Wiggins was the first man ever to win the Tour de France and an Olympic gold medal in the same year. He never defended his Tour de France in 2013, but won a silver medal in the time trial at the World Championships, and won the Tour of Britain. The following year Wiggins won the World Championship time trial gold medal and in 2015 he broke the world hour record with a distance of 54.526 km, and then won his only European track gold medal as part of the British team pursuit team. The medals kept on coming in 2016 when he won a gold in the Madison at the World Championships in London, and a silver in the team pursuit. A few months later he took his Olympic total of gold medals to five when he won the team pursuit, but it also took his overall medal total to eight making him, jointly with swimmer Henry Taylor, the most decorated British Olympian. His eight medals was an all-time record for any Olympic cyclist until beaten by Jason Kenny in 2021.

Bradley Wiggins has received many honours in recognition of his achievements. He received the OBE in the 2005, the CBE in 2009 and was Knighted in 2013 - an honour he felt very humble to receive. He was also the BBC Sports Personality of the Year for 2012. Away from cycling, Bradley is a big fan of Wigan Warriors Rugby League team, and also collects records, old guitars and classic scooters.