End of the road for Wiggins, man who made cycling cool
● From west London housing estate to Tour de France glory but happy ending clouded by controversy over use of TUES
Sir Bradley Wiggins wanted to finish where it all started – and appropriately his career ended on the top step of the podium.
The 36-year-old, who yesterday announced his retirement from cycling, won November’s Ghent Six Day with his great friend Mark Cavendish on what would have been the 64th birthday of Wiggins’ father, Gary, who died in 2008.
“I’ve always said my final send-off would be to come here and race in Ghent for one last time,” Wiggins told sporza.be.
While Wiggins, Britain’s first Tour de France champion, a five-time Olympic champion and eight-time world champion, kept alive the prospect of continuing, he acknowledged in Ghent that the end had to come at some point. That moment came yesterday afternoon when he posted a statement on his Facebook and Instagram pages, alongside a picture of his race jerseys, medals and trophies.
“I have been lucky enough to live a dream and fulfil my childhood aspiration of making a living and a career out of the sport I fell in love with at the age of 12,” Wiggins wrote.
“2016 is the end of the road for this chapter, onwards and upwards.”
It was because of his father, a journeyman Australian racer who, Wiggins says, had a penchant for drink and drugs, that Wiggins was born in the Belgian city of Ghent and some of his earliest memories are from within ’t Kuipke velodrome.
Wiggins said: “I’m not the biggest fan of him as a person and as a father he was rubbish. But as a bike rider he inspired me. He gave me some good genes and a good fighting spirit.”
Wiggins described his fifth Olympic gold – and British record eighth medal – at the Rio 2016 Games as a “fairytale” conclusion. But the happily-ever-after ending was given a twist by September’s revelation that Wiggins received three therapeutic use exemptions for an otherwise banned substance ahead of three Grand Tours, including the 2012 Tour de France which he won for Team Sky.
Wiggins and Team Sky principal Sir Dave Brailsford insist the use of triamcinolone was medically necessary to deal with a pollen allergy which aggravates his long-standing asthma and the TUES were approved by the UCI, cycling’s world governing body.
For some the tue revelations mean that the best of Wiggins’ many and varied achievements should be accompanied by an asterisk; many others are unsure what the fuss is about as no rules were broken. Wiggins’ supporters would also point to his results at the two other races prior to which he received an injection of triamcinolone.
He crashed out of the 2011 Tour with a broken collarbone and withdrew from the 2013 Giro d’italia after riding poorly, suffering a chest infection and a knee injury. Hardly performance-enhancing, his supporters would say.
They would also say the 2012 Tour route suited him ideally, with two long time-trials.
Yes, there is a debate over whether his then team-mate Chris Froome could have won had he not had to respect team orders.
Wiggins has not returned to the Tour since becoming the first British winner in the 99th edition – Froome has since won it three times.
But the lasting image of that race is of Wiggins, in the yellow jersey, leading out Cavendish, in the world champion’s rainbow jersey, to victory on Paris’ Champs-elysees.
Wiggins returned to a hero’s reception and rang the bell at the start of the opening ceremony for the London 2012 Olympic Games.
He then became the first man to claim Tour and Olympic glory in the same year, winning the road timetrial on a day when tabloid newspapers distributed cutout-and-keep sideburns in homage.
It was his fourth Olympic gold, following three on the track. “It’s never ever going to get any better than that,” Wiggins said after winning at Hampton Court.
Wiggins popularised cycling, making it cool. The public were enchanted by his story: from west London housing estate to Tour winner. He was the BBC Sports Personality of the Year in the year to beat all sporting years and celebrated by flirting with presenter Sue Barker and playing lead guitar at the after-party.
He continued to win. He claimed his first road world title, in the 2014 time-trial in Ponferrada, Spain. He reset targets. In April 2015 he raced for Team Sky for the final time, finishing a valiant 18th in the Paris-roubaix one-day race over the cobbles of the battlefields of northern France.
He then set up his eponymous team, Team Wiggins, a development squad for the
BIDDING FAREWELL “I have been lucky enough to live a dream and fulfil my childhood aspiration of making a living and a career out of the sport I fell in love with at the age of 12” SIR BRADLEY WIGGINS
next generation. He set the Hourrecordforthelongestdistance travelled in 60 minutes andthenrefocusedontheteam pursuit, while winning a second Madison world title with Cavendish. It was his eighth on the track.
Rio gold alongside Ed Clancy, Steven Burke and Owain Doull followed.
The London and Ghent Six Day events were an encore.
Wiggins showed he can be contrary by not immediately confirming the retirement which he had long suggested would take place.
And, having been so charming at times, he also showed he could be acerbic when railing against the media coverage of his TUES.
Wiggins is a trailblazer: Britain’s first Lottery-funded rider, first Tour champion and arguably the main protagonist in British cycling’s boom.
The circle of his career is complete.