Bradley Wiggins began his cycling career on the track, but later made the transition to road cycling.
141 Facts About Bradley Wiggins
2.
Bradley Wiggins won world titles in four disciplines, and Olympic gold in three.
3.
Bradley Wiggins is the only rider to have won both World and Olympic championships on both the track and the road as well as winning the Tour de France.
4.
Bradley Wiggins has worn the leader's jersey in each of the three Grand Tours of cycling and held the world record in team pursuit on multiple occasions.
5.
Bradley Wiggins won a gold medal at four successive Olympic Games from 2004 to 2016, and held the record as Great Britain's most decorated Olympian with 8 medals until Jason Kenny won his 9th in 2021.
6.
Bradley Wiggins is the only rider to win both the Tour de France and Olympic Gold in the same year, winning them a week apart in 2012.
7.
The son of the Australian cyclist Gary Wiggins, Wiggins was born to a British mother in Ghent, Belgium, and raised in London from the age of two.
8.
Bradley Wiggins competed on the track from the early part of his career until 2008.
9.
Bradley Wiggins's first Olympic medal was a bronze in the team pursuit in Sydney 2000, before winning three medals including the gold in the individual pursuit at the Athens 2004, and two golds in the individual and team pursuit at the Beijing 2008.
10.
Bradley Wiggins signed with the newly formed Team Sky in 2010, and in 2011 he claimed his first victory in a major stage race in the Criterium du Dauphine, as well as finishing third, later promoted to second, in the Vuelta a Espana.
11.
Bradley Wiggins retired from all forms of professional cycling on 28 December 2016.
12.
Bradley Wiggins did not receive any bans or suspensions in relation to doping during his career.
13.
Bradley Wiggins was born on 28 April 1980 in Ghent, Flanders, Belgium, to an Australian father, Gary Bradley Wiggins, and a British mother, Linda.
14.
Bradley Wiggins's father lived in Belgium as a professional cyclist.
15.
Bradley Wiggins's father left the family when Wiggins was two.
16.
Bradley Wiggins moved with his mother to her parents' house in Villiers Road, Willesden Green, north-west London, then to a Church Commission flat at Dibdin House estate in neighbouring Maida Vale.
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Bradley Wiggins has a younger half-brother, Ryan, from his mother and her partner Brendan.
18.
Brendan and Linda separated when Bradley Wiggins was in his late teens.
19.
Bradley Wiggins discovered cycling when his mother told him to watch the television coverage of the individual pursuit final of the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, which Briton Chris Boardman won.
20.
Bradley Wiggins explained it was one of the events at which his father had been successful.
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Bradley Wiggins watched the rest of the Olympics and fell in love with cycling and the Olympics itself.
22.
Bradley Wiggins raced at Herne Hill Velodrome and on the road around Crystal Palace National Sports Centre.
23.
Bradley Wiggins gained domestic sponsorship from Condor Cycles's Olympia Sport and then Team Brite.
24.
Bradley Wiggins represented Westminster in the London Youth Games as a teenager.
25.
Bradley Wiggins was the only British competitor for the 1997 junior track world championships in Cape Town, coming 16th in the individual pursuit and fourth in the points race.
26.
Bradley Wiggins's breakthrough came in June 1998, winning the three-kilometre individual pursuit at the junior track world championships in Cuba, aged 18.
27.
Bradley Wiggins represented England at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, finishing fourth in the individual pursuit, and was a member of the team that won a silver medal in the team pursuit, his first senior medal.
28.
Bradley Wiggins was briefly seen in Sigma Sport colours after the collapse of the Linda McCartney team, but then secured further lottery funding, and began racing for the British national team.
29.
Bradley Wiggins joined the French team Francaise des Jeux in 2002, relocating to Nantes, and soon became homesick, finding it a huge contrast to the British Cycling set-up.
30.
Bradley Wiggins was frustrated with his result in the individual pursuit at the world championships and became disillusioned with his future with Francaise des Jeux.
31.
In May 2003, Bradley Wiggins made his Grand Tour debut at the Giro d'Italia.
32.
Bradley Wiggins beat Roberts by 0.736 seconds to win the gold medal, his first senior world title.
33.
Bradley Wiggins came away with a silver medal in the team pursuit, beaten by Australia in the final, who broke their own world record with a time of three minutes and 57.280 seconds.
34.
Bradley Wiggins signed with Credit Agricole for the 2004 season, advised by Boardman, who rode for them his entire professional road career.
35.
Bradley Wiggins began training for the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, at first struggling with illness and fitness, he arrived in peak form; he qualified for the individual pursuit with a time of four minutes and 15.165 seconds, an Olympic record and fifth fastest time in history.
36.
Bradley Wiggins was brought in to the team pursuit squad for the first round against France, replacing Bryan Steel, and advanced into the final, where the team were beaten by Australia, settling for the silver medal.
37.
Bradley Wiggins became the first British athlete in 40 years to win three medals at one Games, the last being Mary Rand at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
38.
Bradley Wiggins came seventh in the time trial at the road world championships in Madrid, one minute and 31 seconds down on winner Michael Rogers of Australia.
39.
Bradley Wiggins moved to Cofidis for the 2006 season, and was selected to ride in the Tour de France, finishing his first Tour in 124th place.
40.
In March 2007, Bradley Wiggins returned to the track for the track world championships in Palma, Majorca, his first appearance at the championships since 2004.
41.
Bradley Wiggins then went on to win gold in the team pursuit, beating Ukraine in the final.
42.
Bradley Wiggins finished in 13th place in the Madison, with Rob Hayles.
43.
Bradley Wiggins received the stage's combativity award, for the most aggressive rider.
44.
Bradley Wiggins then won the team pursuit, setting a new world record of three minutes and 56.322 seconds in the final against Denmark.
45.
Bradley Wiggins was due to partner with Hayles in the Madison, but Hayles failed a routine blood test, and was banned for two weeks.
46.
At around halfway through the race they appeared to be out of contention, with their closest rivals all gaining a lap; but with 35 laps left to race, Bradley Wiggins launched an attack which helped them reach the field ten laps later, taking the lead, due to their superior points they had collected in the sprints.
47.
Bradley Wiggins was a member of the team pursuit that broke the world record in the heats with a time of three minutes and 55.202 seconds.
48.
Bradley Wiggins paired with Cavendish in the Madison, and as the reigning world champions, they were favourites for the gold medal, but they only finished ninth.
49.
Cavendish felt that Bradley Wiggins had not performed to the best of his ability in the Madison.
50.
Bradley Wiggins came third in the time trial on stage one in Monaco, 19 seconds behind Team Saxo Bank's Cancellara and one behind Contador.
51.
Bradley Wiggins failed to gain time on the descent and finished three minutes and seven seconds down on winner Frank Schleck, dropping to sixth overall.
52.
Bradley Wiggins moved back up to fourth, after finishing in second place in the time trial on stage 19, finishing in sixth place 42 seconds down on winner Contador.
53.
In October 2012, following the disqualification of Armstrong, who had originally placed third in the general classification, Bradley Wiggins was promoted to third place overall.
54.
Bradley Wiggins led the race after winning the time trial on stage five in Geelong, beating second-placed teammate Svein Tuft by fourteen seconds.
55.
Bradley Wiggins had been contracted to ride for Garmin Slipstream again in 2010, but it was announced on 10 December that he was to leave to join Team Sky, having signed a four-year contract with the new British team.
56.
Bradley Wiggins began 2010 as a team leader for the first time and his main target was to win the Tour de France.
57.
In May Bradley Wiggins took his first Grand Tour victory on the wet streets of Amsterdam in the opening time trial of the Giro d'Italia, becoming the second Briton to wear the pink jersey after Cavendish in 2009.
58.
Bradley Wiggins recovered time on stage 11, finishing fourth, from a group of 56 riders, and lay tenth overall.
59.
Bradley Wiggins faded quickly towards the end of the race losing time in the final stages.
60.
Bradley Wiggins then went to a training camp in the Alps, testing the mountain stages used for the Tour; he struggled to find his fitness.
61.
Bradley Wiggins made a poor start in the Tour, taking 77th place in the prologue after an early starting position left him exposed to poor conditions.
62.
Bradley Wiggins finished eighth on stage three, as cobblestones troubled a number of favourites, but on stage eight at Morzine-Avoriaz, the first mountain summit finish of the Tour, he could only manage 19th place, losing one minute and 45-second to stage winner Andy Schleck.
63.
Bradley Wiggins finished in 36th place on stage fourteen, falling to 18th overall, 11 minutes and 30 seconds behind race leader Andy Schleck; to the press he described his form as "consistently mediocre".
64.
Bradley Wiggins finished the Tour in 24th place, 39 minutes and seven seconds down on winner Contador and seven places behind teammate Thomas Lofkvist.
65.
Bradley Wiggins's season ended at the Giro di Lombardia, where he was forced to abandon following a crash.
66.
Bradley Wiggins was team leader of Team Sky again at the start of 2011.
67.
Bradley Wiggins opted not to enter the Giro d'Italia, concentrating instead on shorter events and the classics before undertaking altitude training to improve his climbing for the Tour de France.
68.
Bradley Wiggins finished third overall, behind Martin and Team RadioShack rider Andreas Kloden.
69.
Bradley Wiggins then went for altitude training in the Alps, in preparation for the Tour.
70.
Bradley Wiggins took the overall lead in the Criterium du Dauphine after finishing second in the time trial on stage three.
71.
Bradley Wiggins confirmed that he would take part the Tour in 2012, even though the Olympics would follow soon after.
72.
Bradley Wiggins had a difficult start to the Vuelta, as Team Sky finished 42 seconds behind winners Leopard Trek in the opening team time trial in Benidorm, but a strong first week brought him back into contention, leaving him twentieth overall after stage eight.
73.
Bradley Wiggins was expected to take the overall lead in the time trial on the following day, but Froome confounded expectations by finishing second on the stage, and Bradley Wiggins only rose to third overall.
74.
Bradley Wiggins eventually took the lead after the rest day.
75.
In July 2019 Bradley Wiggins was retrospectively promoted to second place in the Vuelta after the UCI stripped Cobo of the win for an anti-doping violation.
76.
Bradley Wiggins began his 2012 season with third place in the Volta ao Algarve, including victory in the concluding time trial, edging out world champion Martin by less than a second.
77.
Bradley Wiggins held the lead for the rest of the event, winning the final stage, a time-trial on the Col d'Eze, to win the race by eight seconds overall and become the first British rider to win the race since Tom Simpson in 1967.
78.
Bradley Wiggins's time is the fastest time for the traditional time-trial on the Col d'Eze.
79.
Bradley Wiggins lost the jersey to Rabobank rider Luis Leon Sanchez after Sanchez won two consecutive stages, but won the final time trial, despite suffering a dropped chain, to take the overall victory and become the first Briton to win the race in its 65-year history.
80.
Bradley Wiggins took the overall lead the following day, after Durbridge was dropped on one of the stage's six climbs.
81.
Bradley Wiggins held the lead to the end, eventually winning by over a minute, with teammate Rogers in second place.
82.
Bradley Wiggins entered the Tour de France as one of the favourites to win it.
83.
Bradley Wiggins took over the yellow jersey by finishing third on stage seven, the first mountaintop finish, becoming the fifth British rider to wear the jersey, and first since David Millar in 2000.
84.
On stage ten, he and his team staved off an attack by Nibali on the descent of the Col du Grand Colombier, leading Nibali to accuse Bradley Wiggins of disrespecting him.
85.
Bradley Wiggins extended his lead on stage 11 after Froome helped him to bridge across to his rivals, who had attacked on the finishing climb to La Toussuire.
86.
On stage 17, the final mountain stage, Froome and Bradley Wiggins finished together in second and third place respectively, with Nibali coming in 19 seconds later.
87.
Bradley Wiggins won the time trial on stage 19, giving him a lead of three minutes and 21 seconds at the start of the final stage.
88.
On that stage, Bradley Wiggins helped teammate Cavendish achieve his fourth consecutive victory on the Champs-Elysees and confirmed his own overall victory in the process.
89.
Bradley Wiggins won gold in the time trial ahead of Martin of Germany and Froome of Britain.
90.
Bradley Wiggins entered the Guinness World Records, becoming the first cyclist to win an Olympic gold medal and the Tour de France in the same year.
91.
Bradley Wiggins was among the nominees for the Laureus World Sports Award for Sportsman of the Year, with Jamaican athlete Usain Bolt taking the prize.
92.
Bradley Wiggins ended up finishing the race in fifth place, one minute and 40 seconds down on winner Nibali.
93.
Bradley Wiggins entered the Giro d'Italia as one of the favourites for the general classification.
94.
Bradley Wiggins finished 90 seconds down on the race favourites, dropping him out of the race's top 20.
95.
Bradley Wiggins withdrew from the race the following day, after losing over three minutes on the day's stage.
96.
Bradley Wiggins won the time trial on stage three on roads around Knowsley Safari Park, close to his home in Lancashire.
97.
Bradley Wiggins held the lead for the rest of the week to win the race for the first time, and take his first stage race victory of the season.
98.
Bradley Wiggins was selected to ride the road race, but abandoned after one lap, and was followed by the other British riders as none finished the race.
99.
Bradley Wiggins rode the Tour of Flanders as a replacement for the injured Ian Stannard, and finished 32nd, one minute 43 seconds behind the winner Fabian Cancellara, having helped Geraint Thomas on his way to eighth.
100.
At the Tour of California, Bradley Wiggins won the time trial on stage two by a margin of 40 seconds over second placed Rohan Dennis to move into the overall lead which he would keep for the rest of the race.
101.
Bradley Wiggins did not rule out some road events but wants to concentrate his training on preparation for the team pursuit at the 2016 Summer Olympics.
102.
Early in the season, Bradley Wiggins rode the Tour of Qatar, in which he lost out on contention for the general classification after being caught out by a split in the peloton and then finished third in the race's individual time trial stage behind Cancellara and Niki Terpstra, his first opportunity to wear his rainbow skinsuit.
103.
Bradley Wiggins then took part in the traditional opening race of the classics season, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, finishing 44th as his teammate Ian Stannard took victory.
104.
The race opened and closed with time-trials; Bradley Wiggins finished 12th in the prologue, did not feature in the following five stages, often riding at the back of the peloton, and then withdrew before the traditional mountain time-trial up the Col d'Eze, a stage for which Bradley Wiggins holds the fastest ever time, a legacy of his 2012 victory there.
105.
Bradley Wiggins participated to the Tour de Yorkshire with WIGGINS Team, but did not register a significant result.
106.
On 16 August, Bradley Wiggins joined Cavendish on the track for the first time since the 2008 Olympics, winning the Madison in the first round of the Revolution cycling series at the newly opened Derby Velodrome.
107.
Bradley Wiggins competed at the world championships in London, where he took two medals: in the team pursuit, he was part of the British squad that qualified for the final, where they took the silver behind Australia despite leading with 500 metres to go and going on to set the fastest time in competition by a British quartet since 2012.
108.
However Bradley Wiggins said that he was happy with his performance, stating "that the strongest I've been in a team pursuit, so there's a bit of life left in me yet, and I've got another four or five months to get a bit better".
109.
Bradley Wiggins later received three intramuscular injections of the drug triamcinolone, a powerful corticosteroid.
110.
Bradley Wiggins has denied that Geert Leinders had any direct involvement in his taking of the TUE drugs.
111.
UKAD began its investigation in 2016 following a tip-off that the bag delivered to Bradley Wiggins contained the banned corticosteroid triamcinolone, which allows riders to lose weight while maintaining power.
112.
Bradley Wiggins told the MPs that British Cycling had however purchased significant amounts of triamcinolone, a corticosteroid generally banned in sport, which Wiggins is known to have used in other cases under a TUE.
113.
Bradley Wiggins has always denied any wrongdoing on his part, and has described the investigation as a "malicious witch-hunt".
114.
The committee noted in its report that there is no written evidence to substantiate a claim by Team Sky boss David Brailsford that the "jiffy-bag" couriered to Team Sky at the 2011 Criterium du Dauphine for Bradley Wiggins's use contained Fluimucil, a legal decongestant used for clearing mucus.
115.
Bradley Wiggins was married to Catherine, whom he met during the 2002 Commonwealth Games, after first meeting as juniors in 1997; they have three children together, Ben, Rebekah and Isabella.
116.
Bradley Wiggins only knew his father had been a professional cyclist.
117.
Bradley Wiggins quickly became disillusioned at his father's alcohol and drug problems, and they never met again.
118.
Gary Bradley Wiggins died in Aberdeen, New South Wales in 2008, aged 55.
119.
Bradley Wiggins is a well-known mod and owns a collection of classic motor scooters and guitars from the 1960s and 1970s.
120.
Bradley Wiggins is a keen musician and guitarist and in December 2012 he made a surprise appearance at a Paul Weller charity concert, playing guitar on "That's Entertainment"; and together recorded a special for BBC Radio 6 Music discussing their love of music and mod culture, broadcast on Boxing Day.
121.
Bradley Wiggins presented the winner of the European Super League's 2012 Man of Steel Award to the Warriors player Sam Tomkins.
122.
In July 2012 it was announced that Bradley Wiggins would collaborate with the Fred Perry clothing label "to develop an authentic, non-technical range of cycle wear".
123.
The clothing range, known as the Bradley Wiggins X Fred Perry Collaboration, was launched in July 2012 under a six-year contract.
124.
However, in February 2015 Bradley Wiggins announced that the Foundation would be wound down in the run-up to the 2016 Olympics.
125.
On 10 May 2015, Bradley Wiggins was interviewed by Kirsty Young as guest castaway on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs; his favourite musical piece was "Sound and Vision" by David Bowie, his book choice was Slaying the Dragon: How to Turn Your Small Steps to Great Feats by Michael Johnson and his luxury item was a family photo album.
126.
Bradley Wiggins served as guest editor of Radio 4's The Today Programme on 29 December 2015: as part of this he interviewed Paul Smith about fashion, Gary Lineker about making the transition from being a sportsman to working in the media, and discussed cycling with Jeremy Corbyn and Steve Hilton.
127.
Bradley Wiggins said that his upbringing, in Kilburn, London, gave him a "mental toughness" that would be helpful in supporting others.
128.
Bradley Wiggins said that he doesn't "give a shit" about his cycling career and that he is "detached from it".
129.
Bradley Wiggins speaks fluent French through his participation with French cycling teams and after living in France for a number of years.
130.
At the 2012 Olympics, Bradley Wiggins rang the Olympic Bell to mark the start of the opening ceremony inside the Olympic Stadium.
131.
Bradley Wiggins has written a number of books about his career.
132.
In March 2014 Bradley Wiggins made an appearance as himself in an episode of BBC Radio 4's soap opera The Archers as part of the Sport Relief charitable appeal.
133.
On 5 January 2017 it was announced that Bradley Wiggins would be a contestant on the Channel 4 winter sports reality television programme The Jump.
134.
In June 2017 Bradley Wiggins revealed that he had taken up rowing on a serious basis after initially using it as a means to keep fit, with fellow Olympic champion James Cracknell as his coach.
135.
Bradley Wiggins stated that he was planning to compete in the British Indoor Rowing Championships in December of the same year with a view to competing at the 2020 Summer Olympics.
136.
Bradley Wiggins competed in the elite 2000m at the Championships, finishing 21st in a time of 6:22.5 after a slow start due to mistakenly believing that the race had false started.
137.
In 2018 Wiggins launched The Bradley Wiggins Show, a cycle racing podcast produced in association with Eurosport, for a series of four episodes covering that year's Tour de France.
138.
Bradley Wiggins took up punditry work for the channel in 2019, providing studio-based analysis for the Giro d'Italia before acting as a motorbike-mounted reporter for the Tour de France.
139.
In July 2019 Comedy Central announced that they had approved the production of five episodes of Gods of the Game, a half-hour gameshow to be hosted by Bradley Wiggins featuring members of the public competing against elite sportspeople, including Mo Farah, Chris Hoy, Rebecca Adlington, Nicola Adams and Tim Henman, in "comedy versions" of their sports.
140.
Bradley Wiggins said that he could not tell his stepfather about the abuse, because his stepfather was violent towards him.
141.
In May 2023 Bradley Wiggins revealed the name of the abuser.