“They do say now in cycling that there’s no such thing as bad weather – it’s bad clothing.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“I feel like I was born to ride the track.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“A lot of the bikes are carbon wheels now, and you don’t have as good a braking surface on a carbon wheel in the wet weather as you do on the old aluminium rims.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“I came to the conclusion that I’m not going to give up cycling because some people are cheating.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“People come up to me in the street and use words like ‘legend.’”
― Bradley Wiggins
“It’s difficult, and it’s an incredibly fine balance between getting your weight right down and being anorexic.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“I had a small investment in Twofold, following guidance from my professional advisers. I had, however, claimed no tax relief of any amount in regard to this investment. Given the concerns raised about it, I have now instructed my advisors to withdraw me from the scheme with immediate effect.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“Cycling is a part of my life; it always has been, and I will always continue to cycle. I won’t be doing it on the world stage, doing it competitively, but I’ll still be out on the weekend with the masses riding around Richmond Park in my Team Sky jersey or whatever. I just love it.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“Success is easy to take for granted.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“If you didn’t go out every time it was raining, you wouldn’t get anything done. So it’s a case of making the right clothing choice in terms of waterproof, breathable, warm clothing.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“The Tour has changed, and I can’t make up my mind if it’s changed for the better or worse.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“If we went to the Tour, I’d have to think, what would our purpose be? Would it be to win the Tour de France? I’m not sure I want that pressure.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“I was born in Belgium, but we moved to Kilburn when I was one, so ‘Time Out’ has always been in the background of my life.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“The 2012 Olympics is a fantastic incentive for everyone to help leave a sporting legacy and show that Britain is truly a great sporting nation.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“Growing up, the news agents round my way in Kilburn all had ‘Time Out’ on their shopfronts. The logo is a London icon.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“I began cycling round the Serpentine because it was the only closed route in London where I could ride traffic-free.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“You can plan physically to try to win the Tour, but I could never plan for what was going to happen after it.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“I’d love to win Paris-Roubaix.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“My dad was a professional track racer. It’s in my genes, and my first memories as a baby were in a velodrome.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“That period afterwards, just hating being the winner of the Tour de France, hating cycling, hating the media for asking me questions about Lance Armstrong.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“I’m not just a time triallist any more.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“I’ve become more of a climber now – who still keeps that time trial as strong as ever. It gives me such self-belief. I feel a different athlete.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“I feel a different person in a lot of ways. I feel much more professional and dedicated to my trade than I used to be. I appreciate this ability I’ve got – and don’t take it for granted any more. That fits every aspect of my life now.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“I’ve got an opportunity that not many people have – to be the leader of Team Sky as I enter the prime years of my career.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“Usually, the great thing about cycling is that anybody can watch it; it’s very accessible.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“You train all year for the physical aspect of cycling, but you can’t plan for what comes next. You’re still the same person. External perceptions might change, but inside, you’re the same.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“Working-class people don’t tend to be wooed by celebrity.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“You think if you win the Olympics, you’ll become a millionaire overnight. But I was still scraping the barrel, looking down the back of the settee for pound coins to buy a pint of milk.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“You take for granted that you can walk. You do it every day, and then suddenly you can’t walk, and you have to remember, ‘How did I get out of this chair and start walking in the first place?’”
― Bradley Wiggins
“I didn’t like doing team presentations at races, being introduced as the winner of the Tour. I felt quite embarrassed by it.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“When I did win the Tour, I felt I was feted more in the U.K. for being an Olympic gold medallist… Then I come back to Europe to race, and they’re not interested in the Olympic gold; it’s about being the winner of the Tour de France – here he is.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“You know what? I’ve won the Tour de France, and now I feel ready to talk about it.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“I’m not really a computer man, to be honest. I check my emails every couple of weeks.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“I’ve always shied away from computers, the Internet and all that. I’m a bit more traditional, really – pick up a newspaper, pick up a phone.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“I’ve got a EC3-35 Gibson, which is pretty cherished. I’ve got a vintage Reichenbacker 330 in fireglow, which is the other one I look after and don’t let the kids touch.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“One of my all-time favourite guitarists is, in fact, a bassist – John Entwistle from The Who. He’s one of my all-time favourites, the way he kind of expanded. I mean, he could have been a lead guitarist and been one of the best guitarists in the world. He wasn’t even bass player; he was a bass guitarist, and he took the bass to another level.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“I was a fan of Lance Armstrong, and I remember watching him win the Worlds in ’93 in Oslo.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“I think my wife has struggled a bit because of how obsessive I get with what I eat and stuff.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“I don’t make predictions. I know what I can do, and I try not to think too far ahead.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“I may never get back to the track. The problem was that I was dominating my event, and the winning became slightly boring. I wanted new challenges, and I’ve got that on the road.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“If I’m going to Kilburn, I get on a bus.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“I take my kids to school. It’s what keeps you normal.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“Not having my father around has made me a better person.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“If I can win the Tour de France, there is hope for everybody.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“I always found that the more extreme and the more eccentric I was, that’s what would separate me. I always felt that I needed that separation; otherwise, I’d just be like everybody else.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“I just felt that if the team is doing seven hours, I’d want to do eight. I’d always need to do more. I knew that would make me better than everybody else.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“Things change; your priorities change in life. So I’d never think of riding 100 miles on Christmas Day now, because I’ve got two kids, and it’s selfish.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“Everything I achieve affects my family as well, and suddenly, my kids’ dad became the most famous man in the country for a couple of weeks.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“Sir Wiggo sounds nice.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“It’s really incredible to win an Olympic Gold in your home city.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“I was a bit of a loner at school because I was into what I was into, that sort of scene; that is where the whole mod thing started, when I was 14-15.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“I went to see Ocean Colour Scene at Shepherds Bush and and felt part of something. They paved the way for me.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“Early Nineties – that was what it was all about: how people dressed on the terraces.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“In sport, you just have to take what you can get.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“When you get into the final week of the Tour de France, it becomes a different kind of race. As the distance and the fatigue really tell, that is when it becomes a proper test of everyone’s fitness.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“I said at the start of the race that the Tour is about being good for 21 days, being consistent every day, not having super days and bad days.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“You speak to the press at the Tour every day, but most often in a negative sense. Ninety per cent of the questions you are asked in the post-race press conferences are challenging or provocative, so you have to justify yourself; you have to try to give the right answers about every topic across the board.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“On the Tour, you live in a bubble – your team, the other riders, the press – so you don’t know how it looks from outside.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“I still look back and think, ‘How did I win the Tour, going day to day under that pressure?’”
― Bradley Wiggins
“When you’re in the heat of the moment, you need guys you can trust and who have been there for you.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“The more time I was spending with the British team, the more of a laugh I was having with them. It’s clean, their way of cycling; it’s more about what you can produce as an athlete.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“It was what I’ve always wanted, more than anything: to be an Olympic hero rather than a Tour de France star, something I had from childhood.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“When you are suddenly standing in front of a bunch of journalists being asked what it’s like being a British Olympic legend, it’s a bit much to take in.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“People think sport is life and death – it’s not.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“Wives are around a lot longer than your sporting years.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“I can get obsessive with my training, but it makes you who you are.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“I certainly don’t hope to live forever, but on the other hand, I’m not reckless.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“Pace judgement is everything in the hour record. If you can ride 16.1 or 16.2-second laps constantly for 221 laps, and not go 15.9s or 16.4s, it’s keeping it on the line every lap, lap after lap.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“How does Ronnie O’Sullivan play snooker the way he does? You can’t explain it.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“Doing 40-minute track sessions is easy money compared to what we were doing on the Tour. What you used to think was hard now feels like a walk in the park.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“I can train harder and put myself through more punishing efforts now than I used to do, having done the Tour de France, and come off the road now.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“I always compare myself to the best.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“When you see it from the outside, then you see just how great the Tour de France is.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“I know the freedom that cycling gives you in terms of being able to just jump on and go.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“I’ve been in a lot of pressure situations; I know what I can do.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“My mum put herself in ã50,000 of debt to service my sporting career. She did everything for me to pursue my dream.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“I wanted to put a really good kids’ racing bike out there for kids under 14: 10-year-olds, eight-year-olds, right down to balance bikes for kids.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“I’ve always said the Olympics are special to me.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“Part of me worries about upsetting people, because we all have perceptions about Olympic champions.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“When I won gold in Athens, I said to my wife Cath, who was pregnant, ‘This baby of ours will never want for anything.’ There was real pride in that – but it just didn’t happen.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“I drank because I enjoyed it. I was happy sitting at the end of the bar on my own, reading the paper. I’ve always enjoyed my own company, and that stems from riding alone. I never trained with anyone – and I still don’t. I’ve always been happy with my own thoughts, and that sums me up as an individual-pursuit rider.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“That’s the great thing about the Tour. There’s always next year and the chance to rectify everything.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“I wanted to give an honest insight into a consuming Tour. It’s turned out pretty interesting because there aren’t many books out there documenting someone’s failure.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“I ended up in Hampstead for two weeks after the Tour, visiting a hospital every day before my granddad died. But he was more than my granddad. He was like my father.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“The changing of the goals helps keep the motivation fresh.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“I wish I hadn’t said I’m going to retire.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“You have got Team Sky leading the way on a professional front. They are quite open and have done everything possible on an anti-doping level.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“People always push the boundaries, especially when the rewards are so high financially.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“Tom Simpson is like the Bobby Moore of British cycling.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“My attitude is that, if you have nothing to hide, why not show it?”
― Bradley Wiggins
“In my eyes, I will never be up there with the Sir Steve Redgraves and the Sir Chris Hoys of this world. It’s not something that drives me; I just enjoy going to the Olympic Games. Just to be mentioned in the same breath as those people is an honour for me. I don’t ever think about those kind of things.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“It’s an Olympic Games, at the end of the day, and to represent your country at the Olympics is about as good as it gets. Put a gold medal on top of that, and it doesn’t ever get any better.”
― Bradley Wiggins
“It’s still the height of every four years for me, regardless of Tours de France and everything: it’s all about the Olympics.”
― Bradley Wiggins
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