Bradley Wiggins life and biography

Bradley Wiggins, born 28 April 1980 in Ghent, Belgium is a British professional track and road bicycle racer, currently riding for Team Sky. He won three medals on the track at the Athens 2004 Summer Olympics, and two gold medals at the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics. He came in fourth at the 2009 Tour de France.

Bradley grew up in London where he developed an interest in cycling from an early age. He first started racing at Herne Hill Velodrome at the age of 12.
At the age of 20 he competed in his first Olympics winning bronze in the team pursuit.

By the Athens Olympics of 2004, Bradley had become won of the leading track pursuiters and he won Gold in the 4,000 Km pursuit, silver in the team sprint and a bronze with Rob Hayles in the team Madison. His tally of 3 medals has rarely been accomplished by any British Olympian. Shortly afterwards he was awarded an OBE. Despite his success, Bradley remains modest, speaking of his success to BBC he said:

“I was told a medal was still possible but this sort of thing only happens to other people. I never thought this could happen to me.”

Bradley became a full time professional cyclist in 2001, riding for the short lived Linda McCartney team. He has also ridden for Francais de Jeux, Credit Agricole and Cofidis. Success on the road has proved more difficult than on the track. However, 2007 saw a good Tour de France, finishing 4th in the prologue time trial and staging a long lone break on stage 6, where he was out in front for most of the day. Unfortunately for Bradley, his team, Cofidis were forced to later leave the tour when teammate Christian Moreni failed a drugs test. Helped by the ethos of British cycling, Bradley has developed a good reputation for discouraging the use of doping in the professional scene.

Speaking of the pressure involved in being a cyclist, with so much riding on 4-10 minutes, Bradley remains philosophical about the pressures involved.

”I’ve learnt to deal with it because if you stick to the truth it’s actually clear and simple. It’s just a case of going from point A to B as fast as you can. Why be overawed by the occasion – just because you’ve got a chance to win the opening stage of the world’s biggest race or because three million people are watching on television?” source: Guardian

In the 2008, World Track Championships, Bradley won Gold in the 4km Pursuit, he was also a member of the world record breaking team pursuit, who set a new record.

In 2008, Bradley is riding for team High Pursuit.

Bradley Wiggins finished 4th in the 2009 Tour de France behind Alberto Contandor, Andy Schleck and Lance Armstrong. . He may have finished on the podium had it not been for a few seconds lost when the peleton split on a flat stage.

Bradley finished second in the prologue and his team Garmin Slip Stream finished second in the team trial. After losing several kilos during 2009, Bradley’s climbing improved substantially enabling him to stay with the leading riders on most of the mountain stages. This was the best British finisher since Robert Millar who also finished 4th in the early 1980s

2008 Beijing Olympics

* Gold Medal in 4Km Pursuit. Also set new Olympic Record of 4 mins 15.03 in qualifying
* Madison
* Team Pursuit

British Time Trial Championship 2009

Bradley Wiggins in 2009 British Time Trial Championship. He won, beating Michael Hutchinson by 2 mins. I finished 28th and had time to take this photo at end of race.

For the 2010 Season Bradley Wiggins signed for UK Outfit - Team Sky.

(One dubious claim to fame I have is beating Bradley Wiggins in a race. It was the Bec hill climb in 2006. I think Bradley was asked to come and give out the prizes and so he agreed to race as well. However, I should point out that I saw him ride up the climb in his training gear with water bottle e.t.c. I think he was just doing a bit of training. Nevertheless it is still nice to have a full time professional come to local races.)

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