Bradley Wiggins: My Time

by Bradley Wiggins

  Looking back to 2010, it was as if everything I did seemed to go wrong, no matter how I tried; in 2012 it was as if I could do no wrong. When you see pictures of Fabian Cancellara, defining pictures of his career, he’s bouncing across the cobbles in Roubaix or winning a time trial. Contador is always coming across the line on a mountain stage making his firing gun gesture, whereas I’ve kind of got a bit of everything in there. It’s nice to look back, for example, on winning that bunch sprint in the Tour of Romandie and having that picture in my mind. All the wins in 2012 were different; the Col d’Eze time trial, that bunch kick, climbing on the Joux Plane to win the Dauphiné, and then the defining images of the Tour. I’m proud of that as well. It’s been as if everything I did seemed to turn to gold.

  Shane has always said to me that we train to be successful for the performance side of things, but we don’t train for success and what it brings. That’s very true. So I don’t know what the future holds. The London Games was always going to be a massive watershed. It’s been the pinnacle ever since we knew it was going to take place. Beijing was amazing, but the minute it was finished, everyone’s sights turned to London. Everyone’s plans seemed to finish there. As for me, I never looked further than 1 August 2012 and that time trial.

  I struggle with the idea that I may have turned into a role model overnight. People say to me, ‘Are you ready now, do you realise you are a role model for so many people out there?’ I was constantly saying that I can understand why in an inspirational sense for what I do on the bike, but please don’t hold me up there as something to aspire to, because outside a sports environment I’m as normal as everyone else. I’m not perfect. I make mistakes. People seem to have illusions before they meet you; then they find out that you’re not precisely what they would like you to be. It’s the same with most celebrities in this country: porcelain gods that shatter when they fall. So I say that I’ve got a normal life like everyone else. I have a different job to everyone else, but I’m normal in some of the problems I face like any other person. I have a family, and it’s not easier because of what you do or what you get paid.

  Adapting to what 2012 has brought me may not be easy. Trying to be as good as I could be in the Tour, and if possible winning it, was something that Cath, Ben, Isabella and I bought into together. It was a complete lifestyle, twelve months of the year. It’s not something you can stop and then go back to. So Cath got on with it, and I got on with it. It wasn’t easy, but it raises a whole new set of issues when it’s all over. Doing what I have done involves sacrifice for me, but most of all for the family; being away for my kids’ birthdays, not being around at times when they need me. The justification was that I could win the Tour; when Daddy wins the Tour it will all be over, that is what you tell the kids, and that’s what we have lived by for four years, and that’s gone now. If I say it again the answer now might be, ‘Well, you said that last year and you’ve done it now.’ It was worth the sacrifice in 2012 to do it all once, but it’s hard to say if it would be worth it to do it all again. And if I do it again, do I go and win a third? I suppose if you do that, it stops when you keep going back and doing it and finally you don’t win. And it’s the end of your reign. That’s what happened to Miguel Indurain. I never want to do that.

  In many ways, I don’t want to go back to the Tour ever again. I don’t need to: I’ll always have winning it in 2012. I don’t know if the desire is going to be there. It doesn’t matter if it isn’t. I could retire tomorrow and go and be totally happy with what I’ve achieved. If I were to go back to the Tour and my heart was not in it, or I hadn’t done the work, I’d be in big trouble. What it boils down to is this: I watched Cadel Evans this year, coming back to defend his Tour title, struggling for 8th place, and that’s not for me. If I can’t do it 110 per cent to win, I’d rather not be there.

  If I’m honest, I have other goals. I’m not going to be doing this for ever; I have said I’ll do another two years at this level, so that means I don’t have much time to win other events I feel are important such as the Giro d’Italia and Paris–Roubaix. After that I would like to go back on the track squad for two years, try and win the Olympic team pursuit, then I’m retiring. Returning to the track would be a different challenge, eight years after Beijing. It would be fresh again, and the Olympics is really where my career all started in Sydney in 2000. It would be difficult, but I think I know what it takes. I wouldn’t underestimate it. I like the idea of a different type of commitment: to be a pure track rider, a pure endurance rider, go to the gym with the other guys every day.

  There have been other things: visions, one dream more than anything else, and I couldn’t justify doing it because I’d be silly to move from cycling now with the money I could earn, but I would love to try to be a rower at the next Olympics, in a lightweight four or something. It would be impossible to do: go down, lock, stock and barrel, live in Henley, train and try and be at the next Olympics in a rowing boat. It’s never going to happen, but it would be a different challenge. Imagine that, going and winning the coxless lightweight four: Olympic gold in rowing, four years off. Unfortunately there is no way I could do it.

  So I’m thinking of going through to 2014, riding the Commonwealth Games, then, from Glasgow onwards, becoming a track rider again, still racing on the road, but the road would only be to build my fitness for the track, in the way that G’s done this year: Glasgow 2014, world championships 2015, track at the 2016 Olympics.

  So that’s that.

  I’ve sometimes wondered what George would have thought of all that has happened to me and the family in the two years since we lost him. As my granddad, my father figure and the man who helped me develop a love of all sports, he’d have been made up to see me succeed for sure, but there’s one other thing.

  During the Games, there was speculation about whether I might end up with a knighthood in the same way that Sir Chris Hoy did after his great year. People asked me about it, so I did wonder whether I’d accept it if it were to come my way. The point is that I can never see myself being given a title like Sir Bradley Wiggins. I’ve never considered myself above anybody else. I’ve always struggled with hierarchy and status. I don’t know what it is, maybe just my upbringing, the area I’m from, but I’m quite happy to play second fiddle. I understand my physical capabilities sometimes give me status, but when it’s all done and dusted I struggle with that kind of thing. It’s not what happens to kids from Kilburn.

  I remember saying to my nan, ‘So if I get offered a knighthood or whatever, what do you reckon George would make of it if I turned it down?’

  She came back, quick as a flash: ‘He would never have spoken to you again.’

  So if it comes my way, I just might have to take it.

  Me and my dad, Gary. He was a decent cyclist in his day and in all honesty he was probably better on the bike than he was as a dad

  Getting to grips with an early time-trial bike

  Other kids were into football, but my bedroom walls were filled with posters of my cycling heroes, like Indurain and Museeuw

  Too cool for school

  Lap of honour in Sydney with Paul Manning, Chris Newton and Bryan Steel

  Fighting back with Rob Hayles in the Madison in Athens after Rob’s crash

  Triumphant after the individual pursuit in Beijing

  The 2010 Tour de France was a struggle, although Cadel Evans (left) doesn’t seem to be finding it easy either

  Early training days with Sky after its foundation at the start of 2010

  Where’s Wiggo? See if you can spot me at the start of the 2011 Tour…

  Cav triumphs in Copenhagen, one of the proudest days of my cycling career

  I’m leading the train with Steve Cummings and G on my wheel

  The 2011 Vuelta podium with Juan José Cobo and Chris Froome

  Slogging it out on a training ride in Majorca

  On my way to winning the 2012 Paris–Nice. It was that kind of year, where everything just seemed to g
o right

  The punch in the air as I seal the Tour at Chartres

  Celebrating with the Sky lads on the final Sunday’s brief run into Paris

  When I crossed the line on the Champs Elysées my first thought, as ever, was to seek out my wife Cath

  Proud moments in London: leading the road race up Box Hill with Froomie, David Millar, Ian Stannard and Cav on my wheel

  Contemplating my fate at the time trial start

  Thanking the incredible support after one of the greatest days of my life

  * * *

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Without these people none of this would have happened. I am indebted to:

  Everyone at Team Sky, but particular thanks to Dave Brailsford, Shane Sutton, Tim Kerrison, Sean Yates, Rod Ellingworth, Dan the physio, Diego, Mario, Gary, Alldis and all the other backroom staff.

  The Tour boys: Mick Rogers, Richie Porte, Christian Knees, Chris Froome, Mark Cavendish, Bernhard Eisel, Kosta Siutsou, Edvald Boasson Hagen.

  Faces from the peloton: Steve Cummings, Matt Rabin.

  Team GB: Matt Parker, Nigel Mitchell, Doug Dailey, Luc de Wilde, Phil Burt, Richard Freeman, Alan Williams, the lads in the stores, all the boys in the workshop.

  For help with the book I’d like to thank William Fotheringham, and everybody at Yellow Jersey Press including Matt Phillips, Frances Jessop, James Jones, Bethan Jones, Phil Brown, Penny Liechti, Monique Corless, Justine Taylor, Alice Brett, Myra Jones, Ben Murphy, Richard Cable, Roger Bratchell and Tom Drake-Lee. My agent Jonathan Marks and his partner in crime Emma Wade and everyone else at MTC.

  All the lads at Paul Hewitt Cycles for building wheels for me, Terry Dolan and Steve, Richard and Mick from Sport and Publicity, Mark at Adidas, Scott Mitchell.

  I’d like to thank those a little closer to home, too. My mum, my nan, George – who would have loved to have seen everything that’s happened this last twelve months – and everyone else who makes up Team Wiggins. My parents-in-law Liz and Dave, Ruth and Neil.

  Finally Cath, Ben and Bella. Thank you for giving me the gift of patience and understanding to allow me to follow my dream. And thanks for always reminding me what’s most important.

  APPENDIX

  * * *

  THE GOLDEN YEAR

  A list of my results for the 2012 season.

  FEBRUARY 15–19: VOLTA AO ALGARVE, PORTUGAL

  Stage one: Dunas Douradas (Almancil) – Albufeira, 151km Winner, Gianni Meersman (Belgium) Lotto-Belisol in 4hr-02min-17sec; 77th place, B Wiggins at 7sec

  Stage two: Faro – Lagoa, 187.5km

  Edvald Boasson Hagen (Norway) Team Sky in 4-57-23; 111, Wiggins same time

  Stage three: Castro Marim – Malhão (Loulé), 194.6km

  Richie Porte (Australia) Team Sky in 4-55-11; 10, Wiggins at 40sec

  Stage four: Vilamoura – Tavira, 186.3km

  Gerald Ciolek (Austria) Omega Pharma-Quick-Step in 4-35-01; 47, Wiggins st

  Stage five: Lagoa – Portimão, 25.8km individual time trial

  Bradley Wiggins (GB) Team Sky in 0-32-48; 2, T Martin (Germany) Omega Pharma-Quick-Step st

  Overall:

  Richie Porte (Australia) Team Sky 19-02-43; 3, Wiggins at 44sec

  MARCH 4–11: PARIS–NICE, FRANCE

  Stage one: Dampierre-en-Yvelines – Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse, 9.4km individual time trial

  Gustav Larsson (Sweden) Vacansoleil-DCM in 0-11-19; 2, Wiggins at 1sec

  Stage two: Mantes-la-Jolie – Orléans, 185.5km

  Tom Boonen (Belgium) Omega Pharma-Quick-Step in 4-22-15; 11, Wiggins st

  Stage three: Vierzon – Lac de Vassivière, 194km

  Alejandro Valverde (Spain) Movistar in 4-36-19; 20, Wiggins st

  Stage four: Brive-la-Gaillarde – Rodez, 178km

  Gianni Meersman (Belgium) Lotto-Belisol in 4-21-01; 10, Wiggins st

  Stage five: Onet-le-Château – Mende, 178.5km

  Lieuwe Westra (Netherlands) Vacansoleil-DCM in 4-52-46; 3, Wiggins at 6sec

  Stage six: Suze-la-Rousse – Sisteron, 178.5km

  Luis León Sánchez (Spain) Rabobank in 4-07-58; 41, Wiggins at 14sec

  Stage seven: Sisteron – Nice 219.5km

  Thomas de Gendt (Belgium) Vacansoleil-DCM in 5-11-48; 31, Wiggins at 9min 24sec

  Stage eight: Nice – Col d’Èze 9.6km individual time trial

  Bradley Wiggins (GB) Team Sky in 0-19-12; 2, Lieuwe Westra (Netherlands) Vacansoleil-DCM at 2sec

  Overall:

  Bradley Wiggins (GB) Team Sky in 28-12-16; 2, Lieuwe Westra (Netherlands) Vacansoleil-DCM at 8sec

  MARCH 19–25: TOUR OF CATALONIA, SPAIN

  Stage one: Calella – Calella 138.9km

  Michael Albasini (Switzerland) GreenEDGE in 3-20-04; 165, Wiggins at 1min 32sec

  Stage two: Girona – Girona 161 km

  Michael Albasini (Switzerland) GreenEDGE in 3-52-07; 16, Wiggins st

  Stage three: La Vall d’en Bas (Sant Esteve d’en Bas)– Port-Ainé 210.9km

  Janez Brajkovič (Slovenia) Astana, no time given as stage shortened due to snow; Wiggins, did not finish

  APRIL 24–29: TOUR OF ROMANDIE, SWITZERLAND

  Prologue: Lausanne – Lausanne, 3.34km individual time trial

  Geraint Thomas (GB) Team Sky in 0-03-29; 11, Wiggins at 9sec

  Stage one: Morges – La Chaux-de-Fonds, 184.5km

  Bradley Wiggins (GB) Team Sky in 4-50-23

  Stage two: Montbéliard – Moutier, 149.1km

  Johnathan Hivert (France) Saur Sojasun in 3-48-11; 42, Wiggins st

  Stage three: La Neuveville – Charmey, 157.9km

  Luis León Sánchez (Spain) Rabobank in 3-58-29; 22, Wiggins st

  Stage four: Bulle – Sion, 184km

  Luis León Sánchez (Spain) Rabobank in 4-56-13; 18, Wiggins st

  Stage five: Crans-Montana – Crans-Montana, 16.5km individual time trial

  Bradley Wiggins (GB) Team Sky in 0-28-56; 2, Andrew Talansky (USA) Garmin-Barracuda at 1sec

  Overall:

  Bradley Wiggins (GB) Team Sky in 18-05-40; 2 Andrew Talansky (USA) Garmin-Barracuda at 12sec

  JUNE 3–10: CRITÉRIUM DU DAUPHINÉ, FRANCE

  Prologue: Grenoble – Grenoble, 5.7km individual time trial

  Luke Durbridge (Australia) Orica GreenEDGE in 0-06-38; 2, Wiggins at 1sec

  Stage one: Seyssins – Saint-Vallier, 187km

  Cadel Evans (Australia) BMC in 4-36-21; 61, Wiggins at 4sec

  Stage two: Lamastre – Saint-Félicien, 160km

  Daniel Moreno (Spain) Katusha in 4-02-38; 9, Wiggins st

  Stage three: Givors – La Clayette, 167km

  Edvald Boasson Hagen (Norway) Team Sky in 4-22-13; 46, Wiggins st

  Stage four: Villié-Morgon – Bourg-en-Bresse, 53.5km individual time trial

  Bradley Wiggins (GB) Team Sky in 1-03-12; Tony Martin (Germany) Omega Pharma-Quick-Step at 34sec

  Stage five: Saint-Trivier-sur-Moignans – Rumilly, 186.5 km

  Arthur Vichot (France) Francais des Jeux-BigMat in 4-42-17; 27, Wiggins at 59sec

  Stage six: Saint-Alban-Leysse – Morzine, 167.5km

  Nairo Quintana (Columbia) Movistar in 4-46-12; 4, Wiggins at 24sec

  Stage seven: Morzine – Châtel, 124.5km

  Daniel Moreno (Spain) Katusha in 2-59-37; 19, Wiggins at 10sec

  Overall:

  Bradley Wiggins (GB) Team Sky in 26-40-46; 2, Michael Rogers (Australia) Team Sky at 1min 17sec

  JUNE 30–JULY 22: TOUR DE FRANCE, FRANCE

  Prologue: Liège – Liège, 6.4km individual time trial

  Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland) RadioShack-Nissan in 0-07-13; 2, Wiggins at 7sec

  Stage one: Liège – Seraing, 198km

  Peter Sagan (Slovakia) Liquigas-Cannondale in 4-58-19; 16, Wiggins st

  Stage two: Visé – Tournai, 207.5km

  Mark Cavendish (GB) Team Sky in 4-56-59; 68, Wiggins st

  Stage three: Orchies – Boulogne-sur-Mer, 197km

  Peter Sagan (Slovakia) Liquigas
-Cannondale in 4-42-58; 53, Wiggins at 1sec

  Stage four: Abbeville – Rouen, 214.5km

  André Greipel (Germany) Lotto-Belisol in 5-18-32; 154, Wiggins st

  Stage five: Rouen – Saint-Quentin, 196.5km

  André Greipel (Germany) Lotto-Belisol in 4-41-30; 18, Wiggins st

  Stage six: Épernay – Metz, 207.5km

  Peter Sagan (Slovakia) Liquigas-Cannondale in 4-37-00; 21, Wiggins at 4sec

  Stage seven: Tomblaine – La Planche des Belles Filles, 199km

  Chris Froome (GB) Team Sky in 4-58-35; 3, Wiggins at 2sec

  Stage eight: Belfort – Porrentruy, 157.5km

  Thibaut Pinot (France) Francais Des Jeux-BigMat in 3-56-10; 4, Wiggins at 26sec

  Stage nine: Arc-et-Senans – Besançon 41.5km individual time trial

  Bradley Wiggins (GB) Team Sky in 0-51-24; 2, Chris Froome (GB) Team Sky at 35sec

  Stage ten: Mâcon – Bellegarde-sur-Valserine, 194.5km

  Thomas Voeckler (France) Europcar in 4-46-26; 13, Wiggins at 3min 16sec

  Stage eleven: Albertville – La Toussuire, 148km