Bradley Wiggins

CYCLING - ROAD

Hobbies

Spending time with his children, guitars. (equipe-cofidis.com, 03 Dec 2003; NOC, 31 Jul 2008)

Occupation

Athlete

Family

Wife Cath, children Ben and Isabella

Language(s) spoken

English

Club name

Sky Procycling, Great Britain

Coach

Rod Ellingworth (teamsky.com, 12 Mar 2012)

Sporting relatives

He had trials with English football club West Ham when he was a youngster. (Olympic News Service, 13 Aug 2004; BBC Sport, 09 May 2007; cyclingnews.com, 05 Oct 2007)

Debut

1997 for Great Britain (britishcycling.org.uk, 03 Dec 2007)

Injuries

He required surgery on his collarbone when he crashed out of the 2011 Tour De France. (BBC, 13 Jul 2011)

In 2003 he suffered a broken wrist sustained in a training accident. (NOC, 31 Jul 2008)

Additional information

Start of sporting career
He learned to ride a bike in Hyde Park in London when he was a kid and started track cycling at age 12. (cyclingnews.com, 01 Jan 2003; BBC Sport, 05 Jul 2007)

Reason for taking up this sport
His father Gary was a famous Australian track rider, but he was also inspired by Great Britain's Chris Boardman winning gold in the individual pursuit at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain. (cyclingnews.com, 01 Jan 2003; BBC Sport, 09 May 2007)

Ambitions
To win the Tour de France and Olympic gold in 2012. (bbc.co.uk, 27 Sep 2011)

Hero
Jason Queally. (NOC, 31 Jul 2008)

Most influential person in career
Family. (NOC, 31 Jul 2008)

Awards
Awarded an OBE [Order of the British Empire] in 2005 and CBE [Commander of the British Empire] in 2009. (cyclingnews.com, 01 Jan 2005; labourmatters.com, 09 Jan 2009)

General
PARIS-NICE
His victory in the 2012 Paris-Nice race, one of the top stage races outside of the Grand Tours, made him only the second British rider to win the race in its 79-year history. Wiggins' childhood hero Tom Simpson was the first Briton to win the race when he did so in 1967. (BBC, 11 Mar 2012)

TOUR DE FOURTH
He equalled the best performance by a British rider at the Tour de France when he finished fourth in 2009. The previous best was Robert Millar's fourth placed finish in 1984. He revealed that he lost 9kg before the 2009 Tour in order to allow him to ride more competitively in the mountains, a necessity for a serious Grand Tour contender. (guardian.co.uk, 26 Jul 2009; teamsky.com, 04 Jul 2011; guardian.co.uk, 04 Aug 2009)

FAMILY
He was born in Belgium while his father Gary was competing in cycling races in Europe. His mother Linda and Gary split up when Bradley was three. His father returned to Tasmania in Australia and he was brought up by his mother in Maida Vale, west London, and had no contact with his father for 14 years. He has Belgian, Australian and British passports. (cyclingnews.com, 05 Apr 2002; cyclingnews.com, 12 Jun 2007)

TREBLE TRACK SUCCESS
His medal wins in the individual pursuit [gold], team pursuit [silver] and madison [bronze] events at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens was the first time in 40 years that an athlete from Great Britain had won three medals at a single Games. Track and field star Mary Rand was the last athlete to achieve the feat, also claiming gold, silver and bronze medals at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo. (britishcycling.org.uk, 20 Jun 2007; Infostrada, 20 Jan 2008)

TURNING PRO
He turned professional with the Francaise des Jeux team in 2002. (cyclingnews.com, 05 Oct 2007)

Previous Olympics

Beijing 2008, Athens 2004, Sydney 2000