Bradley Wiggins: Rider Profile

• Saturday, 28 May 2011
• Cycling Weekly
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Bradley Wiggins in the lead, Vuelta a Espana 2011, stage 11

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BRADLEY WIGGINS
Date of birth: 28/04/1980
From: Born in Ghent, grew up in London
Team: Team Sky
Previous teams: Garmin-Transitions (2009); High Road/Columbia (2008); Cofidis (2006-2007), Credit Agricole (2004-2005), Francaise des Jeux (2002-2003), Linda McCartney (2001)

Bradley Wiggins career profile
Born in Ghent, Bradley Wiggins grew up in London racing at the Herne Hill track from a young age. Wiggins' has focused predominantly on the track throughout his career, with his major breakthrough coming at the age of 18, winning the World junior pursuit title.

Wiggins went on to take a bronze at the Sydney Olympics and turned professional on the road with the now defunct Linda McCartney team. Since turning professional, Bradley has taken several time trial wins on the road and has turned into somewhat of a prologue specialist, although was beaten by a flying Fabian Cancellara at the 2007 Tour de France prologue on home soil in London. At Athens, Bradley became the first athlete for forty years to win three medals at one Olympics and almost repeated the same feat in Beijing in 2008, winning two gold medals in the individual and team pursuit.

After the Beijing Olympics, Wiggins released his autobiography documenting his hitherto unknown battle with alcohol addiction after the Athens Olympics in 2004.

In 2009, Wiggins signed for the vehemently anti-doping Garmin-Slipstream team and his concentration returned to road riding after focusing his entire 2008 season on the Olympics.

After putting in a solid performance in the 2009 Giro d'Italia, Wiggins turned his attention to the Tour de France. His ride in the Tour was nothing short of stunning, finishing fourth overall behind Alberto Contador, Andy Schleck and Lance Armstrong. At his first attempt as an overall contender, Wiggins matched the long-standing British record held by Robert Millar, who came fourth in 1984. It opened a whole new chapter in Wiggins' career.

After months of speculation, Team Sky unveiled it had signed Wiggins from Garmin-Transitions in December 2009.

However, after competing in a difficult Giro d'Italia, Wiggins never found the form from 2009, and subsequently struggled in the Tour de France. The then British Time Trial Champion, Wiggins wrote a book entitled "On Tour" to record his feelings throughout the 2010 race.

In 2011, Wiggins started his road season strongly after a gold-medal winning ride as part of the British team pursuit quartet at the Manchester round of the Track World Cup. He placed third overall at Paris-Nice, coming runner-up in the individual time trial stage behind eventual overall winner Tony Martin.

The best was yet to come, as Wiggins rode strongly throughout the Critérium du Dauphiné to take the overall win - his biggest road victory to date.

His 2011 Tour de France ended in disaster after crashing out with a broken collarbone. Recovering quickly, Wiggins rode the Vuelta a Espana where he finished third overall behind winner Juan Jose Cobo and British Sky team-mate Chris Froome.

Wiggins crowned an eventful season by winning the silver medal in the 2011 World Championship time trial behind German Tony Martin.

Bradley Wiggins results
2011
Track World Cup, Manchester, team pursuit
National 10-mile time trial
Bayern Rundfahrt; stage four ITT
Critérium du Dauphiné, overall
National road race champion

2010
Giro d'Italia; stage one ITT
National time trial champion

2009
Three Days of De Panne; stage 3b
Tour of Qatar; stage one (TTT)
Jayco Herald Sun Tour; stage five ITT
Jayco Herald Sun Tour; overall
Beaumont Trophy
National time trial champion

2008
World champion, individual pursuit
World champion, Madison
Olympic champion, individual pursuit
Olympic champion, team pursuit

2007
Dauphiné Libéré; prologue
Quatre Jours de Dunkirk; stage one
Tour du Poitou-Charentes et de la Vienne; stage four
Duo Normand
World champion, team pursuit
World champion, individual pursuit

2005
Circuit de Lorraine; stage two
Tour de l'Avenir; stage eight

2004
Olympic champion, individual pursuit

2003
Tour de l'Avenir; stage one
World champion, team pursuit
Ghent six-day (with Matthew Gilmore)

Bradley Wiggins photos
Click on the thumbnails of Bradley Wiggins below to open a larger image in a new window.

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