Born in Belgium, Bradley Wiggins moved to London in 1982, aged two, after his mother Linda split from his Australian father Gary, himself a top-level cyclist.
Wiggins' future aspirations of cycling greatness became apparent that Christmas when he demanded the stabilisers be removed from his brand-new bike.
A poster of five-time Tour de France champion Miguel Indurain adorned his boyhood bedroom wall, but Wiggins only began to race seriously after watching Chris Boardman take gold at the 1992 Olympic Games.
Having worked his way up the international ranks, winning six Olympic medals by 2008, he then switched his focus from track to road – and the Tour de France.
Key victories: Two-time Criterium du Dauphine winner (2011, 2012); 2012 winner Paris–Nice; 2012 winner Tour de Romandie; British national time trial champion (2009, 2010); British national road race champion (2011); three-times Olympic gold medallist on the track.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article