Bradley Wiggins, glory and fall of a Tour de France winner

7 mins

“ I don’t trust fame “, said the famous Greek singer Maria Callas. Had Bradley Wiggins had this same thought when climbing onto the first step of the Tour de France? in the summer of 2012 ? Twelve years later, at 44, the Briton finds himself in an alarming situation, as his lawyer assures. The man fell into the precipice, a dizzying tumble. “ He lost everything, absolutely everything. His house, his other accommodation in Majorca, his savings and his investments… He doesn’t have a cent left », Announced Alan Sellers in the DailyMail.

Wiggins has been in difficulty since the end of his professional career in 2016, and the placement in liquidation in 2020 of his company, Wiggins Rights Limited, for a debt valued at 765,000 euros. Today, the urgency for him is to settle his debts which amount to more than 1.5 million euros, according to his lawyer. Bradley Wiggins accumulated just over 15 million euros throughout his professional career, between 2001 and 2016. A success which allowed him to be ennobled in 2013 by Queen Elizabeth II. His divorce in 2020 (he was married for 16 years to Catherine with whom he had three children) would also have been a tipping point in what would become his downfall.

Severe depression

Beyond these financial problems, the Briton seems especially marked by severe depression. This doesn’t look like an ordinary kid on a bike. He crashed, every day is painful. “ Much of my cycling career has been spent running away from my past », assures Wiggins, who evokes imposter syndrome. His father, a former cyclist, abandoned him when he was 18 months old and seeing him again at the age of 19 was the “ hardest day » of his life.

“ It was a good distraction and a lot of it was intrinsically linked to my father and the lack of a father figure in my childhood », admits the five-time Olympic champion about cycling. The collector of vespas and rock guitars explains that he spent much of his life trying to understand his relationship with his father, who finally died in 2008, killed during a fight.

In a magazine interview Men’s Health UKin 2022, Wiggins spoke at length about another significant trauma. “ When I was around 13, I was sexually abused by a trainer and I never fully came to terms with it. It followed me into adulthood and I buried it. » Wiggins explains that he did not feel able to talk about it at the time, due to his difficult relationship with his father-in-law. “ He was quite violent with me, I didn’t think I could tell him. I was very lonely…I wanted to get out of that environment and I was a pretty strange teenager in a lot of ways. My attitude on the bike stemmed from that. »

His last years of cycling did not live up to his hopes. The knighted ex-millionaire had the ambition of winning a second Tour, but the 2013 Grande Boucle is being contested without its outgoing winner. The first Briton to reach the Champs-Élysées with the yellow jersey on his shoulders must watch the 100th edition in front of his television screen. In the meantime, the Sky team has found a new leader in the person of Christopher Froome, lieutenant in 2012, who had especially provided valuable help in the Pyrenees to “Wiggo”.

Imperial in 2012 (victory in the Paris-Nice, in the Tour de Romandie, in the Critérium du Dauphiné, in the Tour de France and subsequently Olympic gold medalist in London in the time trial), Wiggins is experiencing a nightmarish 2013 season. Although he had also proclaimed his desire to win the Tour of Italy, he was forced to give up mid-race, struck down by a lung infection and anxious not to compromise his chances for the future.

“ Sometimes I would have preferred not to have won the Tour de France »

After the 2012 Tour title and Olympic gold in London, the famous sideburned champion, who grew up with posters of Miguel Indurain in his room, admitted that he had stopped loving professional cycling. “ After that, my life was never the same, I was immersed in this fame, this adulation that comes with success despite being an introverted and private person. I didn’t know who I was anymore, so I adopted a kind of veil – a rock star veil. It wasn’t really me… It was probably the most unhappy time of my life. »

The man with modest origins admits it today: “ Sometimes I would have preferred not to have won the Tour de France. We can predict what a victory on the Tour can cost you physically, but never what happens afterwards. Looking back, I tell myself that I didn’t take advantage of it enough at the time. »

The man who lived in the working-class and multi-ethnic district of Kilburn, northwest of London, knows everything about cycling, a passion which has therefore devoured him. Tom Simpson was his idol and the Fignon-LeMond duel in the 1989 Tour, ultimately legendary, his great youthful memory. It was his mother who pushed him towards cycling. “ All young English people dream of playing football, try your luck with cycling », she told him. In 2002, he signed a minimum contract to begin his professional career with the French team FDJ.

Bradley Wiggins will end his road career in April 2015 during Paris-Roubaixthe hell of the North. Wiggins knows a thing or two about hell. A beer lover in his youth, he never experienced the exhilaration of a second victory on a Grand Tour. Wiggins has managed to build a track record that many can envy. But his chaotic life journey eventually caught up with him and brought him to the ground, like other big names in cycling who admitted to suffering due to pressure and mental exhaustion.

During a recent interview given to The High Performance podcastBradley Wiggins assured to be “ in the best condition of 44 years of (his) life “. “ I have sometimes experienced dark timesadds the Briton. My success (on the bike) allowed me to reach heights, but I also experienced, like others, the other side of the spectrum. I’ve spent the last five years of my life sorting through my head. I finally took responsibility for my own life. I think my best years are yet to come. »